A history of the British Dominions beyond the seas (1558-1910)

hi:

'iiY

RITISH DOMINIONS

BEYOND THE SEAS

AVARY H. FORBES M. A.

LLAND & Co.

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

lui.

V:

iili;ll^

~A HISTORY OF THE

BRITISH DOMINIONS

BEYOND THE SEAS

(1558-1910).

EDITED BY

AVARY H. FORBES, M.A. (Barrister-at-Laio),

GOLD MEDALLIST IN ENGLISH LITERATCRE, AND SENIOR MODERATOR, UNIVERSITY

OF DUBLIN ; AUTHOR OP " CERTIFICATE HISTOR? (1763-1815)," " A CONCISE

HISrORTC OF EUROPE," "essays and now TO WRITE THEM,"

"HiSTOKY OF ENGLAND (1688-1820)."

Honfton :

Ralph. Holland si Co..
Temple Chambers. E.G.

PREFACE.

With some slight emendations this volume embodies " Clough's
Expansion of the British Empire (1558-1858)," and continues
the same down to 1910. Tiie book treats of the origin, growth
and development of the Colonial Empire of Great Britain, in-
cluding thereunder not only the great depen.lency of India, but
all the recently acquired Protectorates — such as those of Nigeria
and Nyassaland — and leaseholds or " contingent " holdings such
as Cyprus anl Weihaiwei. The last fifty years have been
exceedingly active in Colonial growth, both as regards terri-
torial expansion and federal consolidation, and no pains have
been spared to obtain the latest and most reliable information
respecting these great advances.

The present volume is plentifully supplied with Maps, as
well as Tables — all brought up to date — illustrating the up-
building of the Empire, and biographical and glossarial
Appendices have liliewise been added.

Many of our South African possessions have undergone
frequent experimental cha'iges, being declared, at one time
protectorates, at another time dependencies of a larger state,
and anon separate colonies or protectorates again. This will
account for some seeming inconsistencies in the dates or
descriptions in the following Tables ; but great care has been
taken to make the matter as accurate and clear as possible.

Every effort has also been made to keep up with the

spelUug vagaries of the day ; but perfect success in this respect

is not to be looked for, since, before these sheets are dr}', the

orthography of many geographical names will probably have

altered !

A. H. F.
Upper Tooting, 1910.

410374

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CONTENTS.

CHAI'TKn. PAGE.

Introductory ... ... ... ... ... ..• 13

I. Phases of the Empire's Growth 28

II. The Early Navigators 33

III. British Rule in India 51

IV. The British in America 108

V. The British in the West Indies 142

\'I. Australasia 154

VII. British Rule in Africa 185

Vlll. Miscellaneous Acquisitions -19

Appendix —

I. Biographical 225

II. Epochs of Expansion 233

III. Glossary of Colonial Terms 235

MAPS AND TABLES.

112

MAPS.

PAGE.

The British Empire Frontispiece.

The World, to illustrate Commerce and Discovery

under Queen Elizabeth ... ... ... ... 35

Greater Britain under the Stuarts ... ... ... 39

India in 1785 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 59

India in 1858 87

The American Colonies at the Beginning of
Years' War

The American Colonies at the End of

Years' War 117

The Alaska Boundary 140

The British West Indies, 1858 143

South Africa {to face) 192

British East Africa Protectorates ... ... {to face) 200

British West Africa {to face) 208

Burma 220

Borneo 222

Britis'n New Guinea (Papua) 222

the Seven
the Seven

TABLES.

The Growth of the British Empire 7

The Growth of the British Empire (Chronological) ... 11

The Growth of British Piule in India 105

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE ILLUSTRATING

Growth of the British Empire.

1583. Newfoundland.
1600. St. Helena.
160S. Barbadoes.
1609. Bermudas.

1631. Gambia. (Abandoned and re-settled in 1S18.)

1632. Antigua, Montseirat, and the tieeward Islands
1655. Jamaica.

1661. Gold Coast.

1661. Barbuda.

1666. The Virgin Islands.

1666. Bahamas.

1678. Turks and Caicos Islands.

1704. Gibraltar.

1713. New Brunswick.

Prince Edward's Island.

Nova Scotia.
1759. Canada. (Ontario and Quebec.)
1763. St. Vincent, Tobago, Granada, Dominica.

The Windward Islands.
1783. St. Christopher, Nevis.
1787. Sierra Leone.
1787. New South Wales.
1795. Ceylon.

1797. Trinidad.

1798. Honduras.

1800. Malta and Gozo. '

1803. British Guiana, St. Lucia.

1806. Cape Colony.

1810. Mauritius.

1815. Ascension.

1818. Gambia, Tristan d'Acniha.

1823. Tasmania.

12 BKITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

1829. West Australia.

1832. Falkland I^laiids.

1836. South Australia.

1838. Aden.

1810. New Zealand.

1843. Hong Koug.

1844. Natal.
1846. Labuan.
1851. Victoria.
1855. Perim.

1857. Keeling Islands.

1858. Straits Settlements.
1858. British Columbia.

1858. India formally placeJ under the British Crown.*

1859. Queensland.

1861. Lagos.

1862. Griqualand East.
1868-1884. Basutoland.

1870. Manitoba.

1871. Griqualand West.
1871. Fiji Islands.

1877. West Pacific Islands.

1878. Cyprus.

1831. North Borneo.

1884-1885. Nigeria Protectorate.

1884. British New Guinea (Papua).

1883. Bechuanaland.

1886. Upper Burma.
1883-1890. British East Africa.

1887. Zululand.

1887. Somaliland Protectorate.

1888. Nyassaland.
1888. Sarawak. »
1888. Rhodesia.

1888. Brunei Protector.ate.

1890. Zanzibar Protectorate.

1894-1896. Uganda Protectorate.

1898. Weihaiwei.

1902 Transvaal.

1902. Orange River Colony.

1905. Alberta, Saskatchewan.

♦ For Table illustrating t/te growth of British rule in India, see p. 10 J

A HISTORY OF THE

BRITISH DOMINIONS

BEYOND THE SEAS.

The foundation of Britain's vast colonial empire forms a

chapter of absorbing interest in the history of civiUsation.

Indeed, it might well be asserted that the spread of the

Anglo-Saxon people forms the feature of the present age, in

that it has, more than any other cause, influenced the destinies

of mankind and affected the happiness of the human race.

Equally momentous is the question as to the relations which

are to obtain between the mother country and her various

dependencies. To the effectual solution of this question it

may be of value to consider briefly some few of the causes

which have brought about the success of the British colonies

rather than those of those rival nations, which, tliough first

in the field, have now been hopelessly outdistanced.

A colony may be defined as the planting of a portion of

the inhabitants of one country on the territory of another.

In ancient times the foundation of colonies was the natural

outcome of the growth of the population

and of the inevitable law of food necessity.
Colonies.

As a nation grew, its population became

too great both for its bounds and for its food supply. The

readiest solution of the difliculty which thus periodically

14 BRITISH DOMINIONS IIKYOND THE SKAS.

occurred was to be found in conquest. A population which
had developed to a burdensome pitch, found its natural outlet
in an inroad upon some neighbouring people, more richly
endowed with territory and better supplied with food. Hence,
one great reason for the anxiety of ancient peoples to breed
a race of soldiers.

Thus it was formerly in Greece and Eome. Two noteworthy/
differences, however, existed between the colonies of these
great nations of the ancient world. Those of Greece were all
planted at a distance from the parent state and became, for
the most part, independent countries, while those of ancient
Rome, planted first in the immediate vicinity of the great
city itself, gradually spread throughout Italy into the adjacent
countries, thus forming a vast territory of which Rome was
the centre 8md of which the various states were all held in the
strictest subjection to the central authority.

Thus in very early times we see two distinct types
of colonies. The types persist throughout the history of
colonisation, and it is on the conflict between them that that
history turns.

As we approach modern times there rise in long array the

fruits of the energy and enterprise of the greatest nations ol

the civilised world. The thirst for discovery which prompted

men to penetrate into hitherto unexplored

„ , °, ^"? regions and to brave dangers, all the more

Colonisation. " °

terrifying because unknown, was not con-
fined to any one nation. Five great European peoples shared
the risk and divided the glory. Spaniard, Portuguese, Dutch-
man, Frenchman and EngUshman each attempted to plant
his country's flag and extend her dominions among the
barbarous nations of the world, and each, in turn, achieved
pre-eminence in the endeavour to found a colonial empire.
New Spain, New Portugal, New Holland and New France all
had their day. But all these once great empires have fallen

INTKODUCTOKY. 15

or have dunndied iuto no!,hini,'ne88 or insignificance. England,
alone, has succeeded in firmly establishing her dominion, and
the history of her progress should, in displaying the reasons
for this, furnish a clue to the policy on which her future
relations with the vast dependencies thus called into being
should be based.

Early attempts at colonisation were doubtless due, in great
measure, to the caprice of adventurers, the greed of traders and
the despairing efforts of broken men to repair their fortunes, or

of public spirited ones to escape the incidence
Colonisation °^ unjust laws or to free themselves from the

yoke of civil or religious oppression.
At other times they have resulted from the determination
of the government itself to further commerce, provide an outlet
for the surplus population or to secure a convenient means of
dipposing of its convicted prisoners, or yet again to guard its
other possessions from attack or to maintain the route to theiu
in time of war. In each case, whether the settlement was
originally a trading station, an agricult;xral colony, a penal
settlement or a military outpost, the course of after events was
much the same. The original settlement speedily became the
centre of an enterprising population, tending its flocks and
herds, tilling the soil, or developing the natural resources of
its new home.

It should, however, be remembered, that a colony in the
strict sense of the word can only be maintained in such parts
of the world as afford Europeans a permanent home. Such a

place will grow the cereals which form so

Agricultural great a part of the diet of the white man,

_,, , ,, will admit, without serious detriment to

Plantation

Colonies. health, of the tnost arduous and sustained

labour on his part, and will, moreover, admit

of his rearing a family in full health and vigour. Where such

conditions do not prevail, the agricultural colony gives way

16 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND iUK SEAS.

before the plantatiun, upon which the settler, at more or less
peril to health, if not to life, remains vmtil he has won a suffi-
cient competence to enable him to return to Europe and to the
family, from which the nature of the climate has necessitated
his parting. In such a colony white labour is all but unattain-
able, and the population divides itself into aUens and natives,
the former the masters, and the latter, — the original owners of
the soil — their servants or slaves.

The history of modern colonisation fitly begins with the
first of the Spanish settlements in America. True the early
iSpanish adventui'ers were hardly to be termed colonists in the

proper sense of the word. The}' sought but
Hew Spain. to satiate the thirst for wealth excited by

the stories, current among the mariners, of
the riches of the New "World. Their daring was of the most
extraordinary type. Indeed they were no less famous for their
courage and hardihood than they were notorious for their
cruelty. Their names stand imperishably upon the roll of
fame : they are no less indelibly inscribed upon that terrible
record of gold-hunger and blood-lust that caused Christendom
to thrill with horror at the " devildoms of Spain." But these
adventurers made no attempt at colonieation. The coimtry
drained of its floating wealth, they sought other and more
profitable spheres of industry. To thcra succeeded the planter,
the missionary and the governor from Europe. The missionaries
brought the refining influences of Christianity to bear upon the
natives, and the Home Government insisted upon such measures
as would ensure that the colonics were, at least, decently governed.
But the planter and the adventurer had one great feature in
common. Each desired to exploit the new country for his own
benefit. The planter desired merely to obtain a competence
with which to retire to his own land, and to this end he
sought to bring the wretched aborigines under his yoke,
wringing unwilling labour from them while he himself battened

INTRODUCTOUY. 17

on the richcB thus produced. He sought to take everything
and give nothing. No home poUcy, be it never so wise,
could make a colony where such principles prevailed,
flourish, or coulJ even bolster it from fall. Without
individual energy and enterprise there can be no success. The
colonist who is to succeed must justify his existence : the
colony which is to prosper must give as weU as take. The
natives were ground down by forced labour and exaction, the
country impoverished by the continual drain upon its resources.
Nor was the evil less when the planter acted as the agent of a
company at home. For a time, it is true, success seemed to
follow the settlers. The accumulated riches of the East and
West needed only to be tapped, not created. It was only
necessary to fit out an expedition and, barring accidents,
success was sure. But such success was as ephemeral
as easily won. After a time the system failed. The
labourer — the wealth producer — grew more and more in
importance, while the capitalist grew less and less. Then the
decline began and the downfall of the commercial colonies —
those whose riches were exploited by a company from Europe,
has been signal.

Nor was the lot of those governed directly by the home
government to be preferred. Their rulers, often without the
most elementary knowledge of the requirements of the district
or the conditions of existence which there prevailed, legislated
without sympathy for their desires or comprehension of their
needs. Laws, which might have proved entirely beneficial in
the old countr,y, here produced nothing but disaster.

Such conditions were fatal, but such conditions never-
theless prevailed everywhere throughout the American
settlements of Spain and Portugal. As a result, the colonial
history of these, the first of the great colonising nations, is
a record of almost unbroken failure. The loss, by revolt, of
the chief of their colonies at the beginning of the nineteenth

18 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

centiiry is, in itself, a proof of their incapacity to rule them
wisely. Even in the few that remain, no spirit of loyalty
e'xists such as, for instance, Britain's colonies have shown
when the mother country has passed through a time of stress
and difficulty. All that they can claim is a reluctant allegiance
wrung from the natives by force and maintained by means
of a vast nuhtary expenditure.

The triumph of Anglo-Saxon colonisation and the
cause of the expansion of Britain is largely due to a
recognition of these facts. English settlers looked upon
a colony as a place where persevering labour might win
wealth. They went thither to work, not to enjoy what
the natural wealth of the country afforded or what the
labour of others had created. Moreover, they believed that
a colony could only be administered on the spot, and not
governed, machine-wise, by a power thousands of nules away
in Europe ; a power, moreover, blindly ignorant of the
necessities of the settlement and of the conditions of its
successful development. Thus each and aU of the British
colonies came in time to possess freedom of action, within
certain well-defined limits, although the mother country, vmtil
the revolt of the American colonies opened her eyes, was stUl
blind enough to claim the right of regulating both taxation
and trade.

Probably another influence tended to the triumph of the
EngUsh colonies over those of Spain and Portugal — the
'• insularity " of the Briton, who carried into his new home
all the ideas and tastes of the old, while, on the other h&ndJ
Spaniard and Portuguese were adapting themselves, with a
fatal facility, to habits and customs prevalent around them,
amalgamating with the native population and merging their
identity more and more in that of the conquered races.

Thus an English community abroad presented the charac-
teristics of a similar community at home, and Greater Britain

iNTRODucTORT. "t;".., ^r~r^^'- 19

became not only an extension of the stafcPi'l^ce fireater Bpaln
and Greater Portugal, but ai^' expansion of the natioii-as weTl. -,

Perhaps one of the mos{ valuable lessons which the world
has learned from the fall of the coloT>ial empires of Spain and
Portugal is that, when the growth of saa empire is counter-
balanced by no corresponding development of the nation to
which it belongs, then the hold of tn?Ni^tio» ^ipon the empire
becomes loosened, its rule artificial, ana^tepure precarious.
To one portion of the British dominions only does this apply.
In the vast dependency of India alone do we find the vast
bulk of the nation of other than Anglo-Saxon race. Ml other
parts of the empire are not only ruled by Britons but peopled
by settlers of British descent, who are linked to the parent
race by ties of common blood, common tastes and feelings,
common modes of thought and common religion. It may be
objected that in Canada there still exists a remnant of the
conquered French ; in the Indies, bodies of enfranchised
negroes, relics of English pre-eminence in the unholy traffic
in human flesh and blood ; and at the Cape, both the aboriginal
races of Kaffirs and Hottentots and the descendants of their
first conquerors — the Dutch ; yet the conflict of races in these
colonies has presented Uttle real difficulty and the tendency
in them is to approximate, year by year, more and more
closely to the Anglo-Saxon type. In the two former, indeed,
the question of the relations between the settlers of British
birth and those of alien origin has been, in great part, solved
by the wise adoption of a policy which grants the colonies
pohtical freedom and which sacrifices no jot of their welfare
for the advantage of the home government. In the last, the
question presents greater difficulties of solution. Yet even
here there is little danger of such a rising as that which
reft from Spain and Portugal their vast possessions in Central
and South America, and, by the foundation of the Central
and South American republics and the kingdom of Brazil,

20 BRITISH DOMINION'S BEYOND THE SEAS.

annihUated New Spain and New Portugal, which, in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, bade fair to engross between
them the whole of the New World. From that time Spain
and Portugal have stood, as regards the rest of Europe, as they
did before Columbus made his adventurous voyage and
placed the key of the New World in the hands of their rulers.

The Exclusive System.— It should be noted that the greed of gam
which played so great a part in the establishment of colonies, was
equally potent in its effect upon their administration. Whether the
settlement had been the work of individuals, or of a trading company,
or of a nation, the prime object of its rulers was to secure all the
advantages possible to be gained from it and to exclude all other
individuals, merchants or nations from participating in them. England
had been the last to adopt this system. Up to the passing of the
Navigation Act under the Commonwealth in 1G51, the American
colonies had been free to trade with whom they pleased. Indeed the
liberty to do so was specifically secured to them in their original
charters, and as early as 1620, the Virginias had their warehouses in
Middelburg and Flushing, and did a great trade in tobacco among the
Dutch. As England had been the last to adopt this policy of rigid
protection, so she was the first to give it up. But meanwhile the
rigid adherence of her statesmen to it brought about the
destruction of the first New England, and in the empire she had
then to found afresh, England reversed a policy whose effects had
been so fatal in the past, and adopted in its stead that system of
virtual self-government under which later colonies have flourished
until her empire has become the greatest in the world.

The motives which have led to the growth and development

of our colonies have been various. It has depended upon the

lust of conquest, awakened either by the desire for, enlarged

resources or the endeavour to protect rights

Growth of or territories already acquired ; upon the

0 onisa on. desire, first shown to great purpose by the

sea-dogs of Elizabethan times, to attack an enemy's foreign

possessions or to cripple his resources in that most vulnerable

of points — his commerce ; or upon schemes for the disposal of

convicted prisoners, whom it was felt undesirable to retain

INTRODUCTORY. 21

longci* m the con u try and whose lawless energies and turbulent

tendencies might (it was thought) be turned to good account in

a younger civilisation.

The actual growth of the colonies theixidclves, however,

depended in the greatest degree, upon the outflow of the

surplus population. Religious persecution in the seventeenth

„ , . .. century had much to do mth increasing the

bmlgration. '' "^

stream that flowed from England; the revolt
of the American colonies, the downfall of the " exclusive
system," and the advent of the " era of independence " rapidly
increased it in the eighteenth. As early as 1710, too, the
advocation of emigration was made a direct part of the policy
of the government, in the case of distressed agricultural
labourers and their families. In the nineteenth century, there
has been a vast increase consequent, to a great degree, on the
industrial revolution, which, by the increased employment of
machinery, threw vast numbers of hands out of work. The
improved facihties for navigation and the enlarged knowledge
of the resources of the New World have all tended in the same
direction. The legislative union of England and Scotland, in
1707, led to the emigration of large numbers of Scots, to whom
the English colonies had hitherto been barred, bj^ their exclusion
from the advantages of English trade. Their attempt to set
up a separate colony on the Isthmus of Darien had ended in
disastrous failure and bitter disappointment. Then, however,
the spirit of enterprise, characteristic of the North Briton, led
to a vast exodus, and now the Scot is found wherever the flag
is planted, prominent alike in business, in agriculture and in
politics. Of late years, it is the unhappy Isle of Erin which
has been drained of its inhabitants by emigration. To this
result many causes have been contributory. The destruction,
in the last century, of the small holdings for the benefit of the
greater landlords, the unjust penal laws and the constant
bitterness of religious strife stand among the chief. The intro-

22 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

auction of the potato and its adoption as the staple food of the
country has not been without effect upon emigration. One
consequence of the ease with which the potato crop could be
cultivated was a general decline in industry, and the failure of
that crop left the people without resources and tha prey of
famine. The two disastrous years, 1846 and 1847, drove nearly
two million Irish to seek a new home beyond the seas.

As a natural result of the overcrowding that exists at home
and the increasing difficulty of finding work for the whole
population, it has been proposed that a regular scheme should
be organised by the government, having for its object the
encouragement of emigration and the consequent lessening of
pauperism at home. Many serious objections may be made to
such a course. The advent of shiploads of useless and
indolent paupers is not an event to be looked forward to with
pleasure by any country. America, in particular, has strongly
set her face against the introduction of such useless additions
to her population. Only those who are able and willing to
work can find benefit in emigration or contribute to the well
being of the covmtry selected. Given these qualities, emi-
gration is in every way desirable, the colonies hold out their
hands to welcome the new comer, assist his passage and
provide him, if agriculture is his aim, with a grant of land on
which he can settle.

The Value of the ColonieB. — The value of her colonial
empire to Great Britain has been immense. She has created
vast communities in distant lands, and fostered them until
they have matured into settled prosperity, but the reaction
of the colonies on the mother coinitry has been no less
momentous. It is to her colonies that Britain is mainly
indebted for that vast trade which fills her great seaports with
their forests of masts and lines them with their miles of docks
and wharves, filled with the products of her energy and

INTUODUCTORY. 23

enterprise in every part of the globe — the great harvest of the
richest coinincrce the world has ever knowTi. Commerce, in
turn, has called into bemg her enormous mercantile marine,
ajid, for its defence and by means of the wealth it carries, has
created her mighty navy. It has made England the richest
of the manufacturing nations of the earth, for from her
colonies she draws the material for her industries and every
stroke of the miner's pick and every movement of the
squatter's shears feeds the fires of her factories or wakes to
motion the shuttles of her looms.

It is, in fact, only by means of the resources which she has
obtained from her dependencies across the sea, that Britain
has been able to dominate the commerce and industry of the
world and maintain her position mviolate and secure amon"
the powerful nations with which she is surrounded. Indeed,
it may be said that only by the aid of her dependents and by
the loyalty and spirit of their people has she been enabled
to make the empire what it is. It was largely by the devotion
of the Sepoys that India was won : it was, in no smaU degree,
to the efforts of the North American colonists that we owe the
conquest of Canada.

The political benefits Britain has derived from the possession
of her colonies were most apparent in the early stages of her
history. Then it was that successive waves of emigration
swept from England those bold and miquiet spirits who
threatened her peace, and who found, in a new land, that
freedom of action and of thought which the settled condition
of an established government forbade. Not the least notable
of the developments which occurred in this connection waa
the formation of the penal settlements where some, whose
criminal and anti-social tendencies brought them into dangeroua
conflict with the authorities at home, were converted, amidst
new surroundings, into honest and industrious citizens, who,
in forwarding their own fortunes, vastly improved the prospects

2i BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

of the land of their exile. Such a result is pregnant with
meaning for the philanthropist or social economist of to-day who
seeks a remedy for the poverty and distress which form an
ever-present blot upon the richest civilisation the world has seen.
The value of colonies as schools for the training of forces
for the defence of the empire is equally pronounced. In her
colonies England can foster every quality of manly endurance
and soldierly discipline. The native races, many of them war-
like by nature and instinct, might also be trained in their turn
for the safeguarding of the empire. The drafting of Sikhs to
Africa and, say, Kaffirs to India, would — the first strangeness
gone — tend to consolidate the British power and promote the
fusion of the British dominions into one great and powerful
whole. As a nursery for her seamen Britain's colonial
empire is even of greater value. The vast mercantile navy
which her enormous trade has called into being would furnish,
in time of need, a sufficient supply of sailors skilled in their
work and eager to emulate, in their country's behalf, the
deeds of their fore-fellows, who earned for England the proud
title of "the Mistress of the Seas."

The Future of the Colonies. — The great question of the
future, as far as Imperial politics are concerned, is the relation
which is to obtain between the mother country and her
dependencies. As the colonies grow in wealth and influence
the present position becomes more and more untenable, and
the relations more and more strained. The question lies
between two opinions. On the one hand it is claimed that
each colony as soon as it becomes self-supporting ; as soon, to
speak fignratively, as it attains its full growth, should be cut
adrift from its parent and allowed to shift for itself as an
independent nation, with no tie between it and the country that
gave it birth, save only the sentiment arising from common
rare. On the other hand, it is insisted that the time has coma

INTRODUCTORY.

25

for a closer union between Britain and lier colonies ; and the
followers of this belief advocate the formation of a great
federation, which should unite all the colonics and dependencies
of Great Britain under one vast dominion, the members of
which, while enjoying the free exercise of all constitutional
rights, and controlling all afifairs pertaining to independent
self-government, should yet render a loyal homage to the
British Crown, and act, in questions affecting the welfare of
the empire as a whole, in union with all the other units of
that empire by means of some system of Imperial representation,
by which each dependency could make its voice heard in the
councils of the empire. In support of the idea of federation
stands the shining example of Canada. Since the formation
of the Dominion the progress of that Colony has been singularly
rapid.* The Australian colonies followed Canada's example in
1900, and although there has been some little difficulty with
West Australia, owing to the general weakness of the colony
and her distance from the seat of government, the unification
appears to be working well. A similar movement was long
on foot for the federaUsation of British South Africa, and by
the Bill of 1909 the Rubicon has at length been crossed. The
difficulties there are great— from race, language, religion, and
geographical conditions. Still, the Mother Country will waft
her benediction, and say — " Floreat I "

In the appointment of colonial lawyers to the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council (the Court which, sitting at
Whitehall, hears colonial appeals), as well as in the despatch
of colonial troops from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.,
to the assistance of the mother country in the South African
War of 1899-1902, some pioneer movements have been made
towards Imperial Federation, which may perhaps be followed

• Some indication of the economic progress of Canada may be gleaned from
the fact that in ten years-lsyj-lOTD-the increase in exported corn in one
Canadian province alone was from 9,000,000 to 200,000,000 bushels.

26 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

up in the near future. Disraeli's aphoriiui, that the unity of
the British Empire "depends as much on sympathy as on
force," is certainly being more forcibly verified as time goes
by, and so is the still greater sentiment of Burke, when
pleading for a more liberal and magnanimous treatment of
Britain beyond the seas : —

"My hold of the colonies is in the close aSeotion which
"grows from common names, from kindred blood, from
"similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties,
" which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron.
" Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights
"associated with your government — they will cling and
" grapple to you ; and no force under heaven will be of power
"to tear them from their allegiance. But let it once be
" understood, that your goverameut may be one thing, and
" their privileges another; that these two things may exist
"without any mutual relation, the cement is gone; the
' ' cohesion is loosened ; and everything hastens to decay and
" dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the
"sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of
" liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith,
" wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship free-
" dom, they will turn their faces towards you. The more
" they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more
"ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be
"their obedience. . . . This is the true Act of Navigation
" which binds to you the commerce of the colonies, and
" through them secures to you the wealth of the world. . . .
" It is the spirit of the English constitution, which, infused
" through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites,
" invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down
" to the minutest member. . . , We ought to elevate
" our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the
"order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the
"dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a

INTliOOUCTOUY. 27

" savago wilderaess into a glorious oiupiro, aud have made
" the most extensive, and the only honourable couquestB,
" not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, th«
" number, the happiness of the human race."

— "L^Afeajtaap— --

28 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

CHAPTER I.

Phases of the Empire's Growth,

The growth of the British Empire has been the work of three
centuries of unremitting effort, in which our forefathers have
borne the brunt of the hostility of the world.

Three great potentates of modern history have set them-
selves against it. Phihp II. of Spain, Louis XIV. of France,
and the first Napoleon, each endeavoured to stem its onward
progress. Against them have been arrayed, on England's
side, Elizabeth and her great seamen, William III. and the
famous Duke of Marlborough, and Chatham and Nelson.
Thus the history divides itself into three great historic
duels, the first with Spain, and the second and third with
France. The result of the first was the overthrow of the
Spanish Empire, with its vast dominions across the Atlantic,
and its clami under the Papal Bull to the monopoly of the
New World. The second determined Spain's successor. Her
European possessions passed to the llouse of Bourbon ; her
tra.de and her maritime and colonial supremacy to England.
The third shattered Napoleon's hopes, as British ascendency
at sea crushed his projects of an empire in the east, and
forced his ambition to confine itself to Europe.

Thus the three centuries which have elapsed between the

death of Queen Ma,Ty in 1558 and the proclamation of Victoria's

sovereignty over India in 1858, fall naturally into three periods.

In the first of these, from the accession of Elizabeth to the

death of Anne, England expanded into Great Britain and laid

PHASES OK THE EMPIRE'S GROWTH. 29

the foundattons of her empire abroad. In the second, from
the death of Anne to the battle of Waterloo, there was waged
the long contest between England and France for supremacy
in India and America, during which the British Empire rose
from its {mmdations ; while during the third period, from
1815 to 1858, Britain admittedly supreme as a maritime and
colonial power, has everywhere extended, developed and
consolidated the empire she had gained.

England and Spain.— It was against these adversaries and
through these phases, that the small half island over which
Elizabeth ruled, developed into the world wide empire which
acknowledges Britain's sway. The efforts of the Elizabethan
seamen, greatly as they shook the maritime supremacy of
Spain, did little to affect her colonial empire. But Drake was
■uoceeded by Ealeigh, the pioneer of the Empire of the Seas,
and by the founders of that vast Empire of the West, whose
continents lay yet for the most part unexplored. Greater
Britain sprang into existence when EngUshmen made their
permanent home across the Atlantic. In point of territory
gained, the reign of Elizabeth has little to show. What it did
was to initiate a poUcy of expansion and to strike at the
foundations of the sea-power of Spain until the superstructure
tottered to its fall. The natural consequence followed. The
flag of England floated over every sea, and the trade of
England followed the flag.

" The Spanish Armada marks the moment when the period of pre-
paration or apprenticeship closes. The nation . . . looks no longer
towards the continent, but towards the ocean and the New World.
It has become both maritime and industrial." — (SeeletJ.

Holland ranged itself on the side of England in the contest
and throughout the early Stuart period, Dutch and English
are found combined as the rivals of Spain in commerce and in
colonisation.

80 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

England and Holland.— But the British Empire entered
upon a new phase of its development with the establishment
of the Commonwealth. Secure by land, it was essential that
the Protectorate should guard itself against attack by sea. With
the navy, which thus came into existence, organised by Vane
and commanded by Blake, England finally committed herself
to a maritime career.

"At this moment, England woke more clearly thin ever before to
a consciousness of her geographical position, of the fact that a
maritime vocation was that to which she was called by nature
itself."— (Bankk).

Two ev«nts stand clearly prominent, the passing of the
Navigation Act in 1651; and the seizure of Jamaica by Penn
and Venables in 1655, "the most high-handed measure recorded
in the modern histor^^ of England."

Croniwell's foreign policy revealed England's great possi-
bihties as a maritime power. "It is a first sketch of the
British Empire."

"The Navigation Act consummated the work which had been
commenced by Drake, discussed and expounded by Raleigh and
continued by others. It completed the apparatus of our foreign
trade by creating an English commercial navy." — (Seeley),

But for England to commit herself to a maritime career
was to enter into rivalry with the Dutch. The great power of
Spain had sunk to a shadow. The revolt of Portugal had
robbed her of much of her power and prestige.

France was wholly occupied with internal dissensions.
Holland alone could offer a dangerous opposition, and hence-
forth, England and Holland were engaged in a deadly contest
for supremacy. It was a war of growth and expansion for
England, a struggle of life or death for Holland. The contest
began with the massacre of Amboyna in 1623. It grew acute
at the beginning of the reign of Charles II. It ended, when, in
1674, Charles II. withdrew from his alliance with France. From

PHASES OF THE EMPIRE'S GUOWTU. 31

this time forwaitl, Eugland and Holland were once more side by
Bide in resisting the aggressions of France. But the Dutch
power had seen its meridian. Henceforth it began to decline.

" These sturdy seamen now lost the great position which they, like
the Spaniards previously, had held for nearly a century, and the field
was left clear for the rivalry of Great Britain and France by land
and sea." — (Burrows).

England and France. — The next phase in the development
of Greater Britain, found England and Holland once more
allied, this time to resist the aggressions of France. The latter
country had been little, if at all, behind England in exploration,
and had even preceded her in settlement. When the pilgrims
of the Mayflower founded, in 1620, the New England states,
Acadia and Canada were already settled, and Champlain had
founded, in the natural fortress of Quebec, the stronghold of
French power in America. During the Protectorate, French
policy had lain in the hands of Cardinal Mazarin to whom
colonial development did not appeal. France feU behind in
the race for expansion. He died in the year after the Restora-
tion, and was succeeded by Colbert. The latter, full of the
spirit of the times, entered into eager competition with English
and Dutch for the empire of the New World, and the commerce
of the Old. Hence the efforts of France to set England and
Holland at variance and to keep them so. The restoration of
peace, or the supremacy of either combatant, would have left
her face to face with a formidable adversary. The combatants,
finding that the policy of France was to allow them to destroy
one another, speedily made peace and took sides against their
common adversary, and the Netherlands and Britain were
driven into a close alliance which mutual interest preserved
intact for more than a century. It was cemented by the
accession of the Dutch Stadholder, William of Orange, to the
English throne, and was indeed, one of the main causes of the
EngUsh revolution of 1688.

32 BRITISn DOMINIONS BSYOND THE SEAS.

Two of the most characteristic features of the early part of
the struggle were the series of naval victories gained by
England over the French, commencing with that of La Hogue,
and the even more brilliant series of battles on land which are
associated with the genius of Marlborough. But it was abroad,
among the colonies of India and America, that the contest was
keenest. France and Spain closed round our American settle-
ments, and together attempted to shut our commerce from the
Mediterranean. In India, the French were already dreaming
of a great empire of the East built upon the ruins of British
dominion. In the struggle which ensued, Britain, after many
vicissitudes, was everywhere successful. In the Mediterranean,
the capture of Gibraltar secured the British commerce with
the East, while shutting off the western ports of France and
Spain from communication with those upon the Mediterranean.
In America, Pitt's scheme for the conquest of Canada was
carried to a perfect realisation, and the fall of Quebec in 1759
added French North America to the British Empire. In
India, the military genius of Olive, and the administrative ability
of Warren Hastings, placed the British power upon a basis too
firm to be easUy shaken. The accession of Napoleon renewed
the conflict. His design was to regain for France in the
Mediterranean, in India and in the New World, the supremacy
of which she had been deprived. His failure to do so was the
great failure of his life. Vanquished at the Nile, driven from
Egypt and then from Malta, his naval power annihilated at
Trafalgar, he had to fall back on an attempt to break.the British
power by ruining British trade. His fall at Waterloo set the
coping stone in the security of the British Empire, and in
securing it, gained for her, as the reward of three centuries of
strenuous effort and desperate struggle against heavy odds, a
world-wide commerce and an empire on which the sun never
sets.

CHAPTER II.

The Early Navigators.

The year 1558 marks a crisis in the history of Englanc!. It
was the year in which Queen Elizabeth came to the throne
and the great rivalry between England and Spain began.
From this time dates that great impulse of discovery and
exploration which was to plant England's flag in every quarter
of the globe : from the defeat of the Armada, thirty years
later, we may reckon the commencement of her supremacy
upon the sea, which alone enabled the work to be successfully
accomphshed. True, navigators had sailed from England on
voyages of discovery before that date, and investigators had
previously explored new regions, but such attempts were
rather the result of isolated efforts thtm due to any great
national movement for the extension of the empire or of its
commerce.

The Bristol Merchants. — Foremost in the annals of English
commerce stand the merchants of Bristol. First on the list
of English explorers is to be found their chosen navigator,
Sebastian Cabot. Towards the end of the fifteenth century
there settled in Bristol one Giovanni Cabotto (or Gabotto), a
man skilled in the geographical lore of his day, and, withal,
a man of enterprise and daring. He, in the year 1496, first
became emulous of rivalling, in the interests of the country
of his adoption, the exploits of Columbus, "of whom there
was great talk in the court of King Henry VII., insomuch
that all men, with great admiration, aflinned it to be a thing
more divine than human to sail by the west into the east by
a way that was never known before." From Henry VII.,
Sebastian sought permission to attenipt a like voyage of
discovery. That monarch, keen to the advantages of the
project, if chary to adventure on liis own part, freely granted a

34 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

patent to "John Cabote, citizen of Venice; to Lewes, Sebastian
and Santius, sons of the said John, settled at Bristol, to
navigate the northern seas under the English flag with five
ships and as many men as they should think proper at their
own sole cost and charges, to discover the Countries of Gentiles
or Infidels, in whatever part of the world situated, which had
hitherto been unknown to all Christians," and, further, to rule
such countries, " as our vassals, Ueutenants, governors or
deputies — the dominions, title and jurisdiction of them remain-
ing with us, and a fifth part of the profits of such enterprise
being payable to us ; " — a most economical arrangement on the
part of the King, and one thoroughly characteristic of the
gracious monarch from whom it proceeded.

With two ships, Cabot sailed from the port of Bristol,
toward the end of May, 1497, on perhaps the most momentous
voyage in EngUsh history, for with it begins the history of
EngUsh colonisation. Sailing to the north and west, he
touched at Iceland, and thence, impressed by the legends of
the early Vikings, determined to follow their path and win,
if it might be, to the fertile land they had discovered beyond
the western ocean.

It is to the Vikings, our brothers in blood, rather than to
Genoese or Spaniard, that the credit of the discovery of America is due.
The history of their voyaging is preserved in the old Norse sagas of
Eric the Red, and of Thorfinn Karlsefni, both dating, in their manu-
script shape, from the twelfth century and probably handed down
from skald to skald, for some generations before that. Here, with
much that is mythical and more that is conjectural, there is mingled
sufficient truth to enable modern geographers to trace the course of
their voyages with something approaching to certainty, and to connect
the Hellaland.Markland and Vinland of the Scandinavian sagas, with
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the New England provinces of the
present day, while the wonderful Furthastrandir is, with little margin
of doubt, the name they afiplied to the sandy beaches of Chatham and
Monomy, lying to the south of Cape Cod.

Following in their track, Cabot reached laud. True, it was
Qot the Cathay which he sought. No one could have mistaken

THE EAKLY NAVIGATORS.

35

36 BUITISH DOMINION'S BEYOND THE SEAS.

its rocky and icebound coast for the golden sands of that
fabled region, or its barren soil for the luxuriant vegetation of
the tropics. So his crew concluded, and as each day the
number of icebergs increased and the sea fogs grew denser
and denser, they insisted upon his quitting this inhospitable
region, where there was nothing save a wonderful and
apparently inexhaustible supply of fish. He was in Bristol
again in August, and his report led to the formation of a fleet,
which, year by year, set out from that port to gather the
harvest of the sea upon the rich banks of Cabot's "New-found-
land." Fishing stations were estabUshed where the " take " j
might be cured, and to maintain these, certain of the seamen, j
the first English settlers in America, made their home on the '
shores of Labrador, carrying on, between the fishing seasons,
a rude traffic with the natives and collecting what rarities the i
country afforded for sale at home.

Henry VII., in 1505, paid 139. 4d. " for popinjays, and wild cats of
the Newfoundland islands." At the period when our history begins,
the Newfoundland fishery had risen into considerable importance,
some forty ships were engaged in it and the prosperity of the fishing
towns of the west of England greatly increased. Although Cabot's
search for Cathay had been vain, the spirit of discorery was in no
wise quenched. Other expeditions were planned, and the royal aid
Bought. Still no substantial result followed. The adventurers were
unable, alone, to subsidise the enterprise, while the parsimonious king
was so chary of his wealth, that he not only refused them assistance,
but even when a continent was discovered for him, would not be at
the expense of developing its resources. It is, however, only just to
note that the record of Henry's Privy Purse contains under date,
August 10, 1497, the entry : " ;£10 to him that found the new isle."

Sebastian Cabot. Numbers of voyages were, however, made at
the cost of private persons, and many of these owed their origin to the
zeal of Sebastian Cabot. He had, in his youth, proceeded to Spain,
where Charles V. made him the Pilot-Major of the Empire. In 1547,
after a disastrous voyage to La Plata, he came to England, and h.id
much to do with the planning of the voyages of Willoughby and
Stephen Borrough, in search of the North-East p;i.ssage to Cathay, a
quest he had himself nndertaken in 1517. Ten years later, be died in

THE KAKTA' NAVIC A TOr.S. 137

gTuat obscurity, and in the tlirest poverty, but tiis {auie has grown till
he is now recognised as havinu been one o( the ;,'realest o( navigatorH
and cosmographers, "the author of the maritime strength of Ennlanil,
who opened the way to those improvements which have made the
English 80 great, so eminent and »o Uourishing a people."

Throughout the whole of Ehzabcth's reign the desire of

exploration grew, fed by the tales spread by English seamen

of the wealth of the Spanish settlements beyond the Atlantic.

Two famous half-brothers, Sir Humphry

^"" """'P'^'jr Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh, led the
Gilbert. *=

van. The former had arranged at hia

own expense, two voyages to the western seas, only to
find his projects of colonisation thwarted by the inefficiency
and half-heartedness of his crews. In June, 1583, undaunted
by his former failures, he succeeded in fitting out five ships
in order to plant a colony on the shores of Newfoundland.
From this voyage he never returned. His men, lacking his
I'eal, refused to proceed with the hazardous task he had set
himself of mapping the dangerous coast for the benefit of
future voyagers and compelled him to turn homewards. Two-
thirds of the way had been passed when there fell foul
weather and " seas breaking short and pyramid-wise." The
remainder may be given in the words of the original chronicler.
" Monday, the 9th of September, the frigate was near cast
" away, oppressed by the waves, but at that time recovered,
"and giving forth signs of joy, the general sitting abaft with
" a book in his hand, cried imto us in the Hinde, so often as
" we did approach within hearing, ' We are as near to
" Heaven by sea as by land,' reiterating the same speech,
'• beseeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ as I can
" testify he was. The same Monday night, about twelve of
" the clock, the frigate being ahead of us in the ' Golden
" Hinde,' suddenly her lights were out, whereof, as it were
" in a moment, we lost the sight ; and withal, our watch
" cried ' The General was cast away,' which was too true." —

(HaKLUYT'B VOTAGBB.i

410374

38 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

It is interesting to note the size of the ships of his little fleet. Ths

••Delight" was 120 tons, the "Raleigh" 200 tons (she, however,

deserted off the Land's End), the " Golden Hinde " and the " Swallow,"

both of 40 tons, while the " Si^uirrel," which the chronicler calls "the

frigate " — the vessel chosen by Sir Humphiy for all his investigations,

and the one in which he went down, was but of 10 tons burden.

Nor was Raleigh more successful. In 1584 he obtained a

charter from her Majesty appointing him successor to Sir

Humphry Gilbert. The following year he organised an

expedition to Virginia, founding there a colony which led

a precarious existence for a twelvemonth, at the end of which

time the colonists, by their harsh treatment of the Indians,

provoked so severe a retaliation that they were glad to return

again to England. A second body of colonists, planted in

1587, was killed to a man, the result of the legacy of

hate its predecessors had won.

Still, these were but the first ripples of that great tide
which was to foUow. The business of Englishmen, imder
good Queen Bess, was not so much to colonise as to fight,
and, in fighting, to win for their country the mastery of the
sea, to defeat the Spaniard, and to prepare the way for the
expansion which was to come.

The Sea-Dogs. — Elizabeth's policy in the early part of her
reign had been to keep the peace, above all with Spain. Her
people were of another mind. The growing enthusiasm for
discovery sent one adventurous Englishman after another
across the Atlantic, to poach upon the preserves of Spain.
Many were the deeds of daring they performed, till the terror
of their names spread through the Spanish [jorts. Ever at
home upon the sea, the English seamen now learned to ply
their craft with unmatched skill, to fight against their great
rival, no matter how heavy the odds, and, in most cases, to win.
The Spaniards hated them no less than they feared them, and
when, as often occurred, a few wretched Englishmen fell
into their hands, the tortures of the Inquisition were requisi-

THE EARLY NAVIGATORS.

3'J

40 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

tioned to wipe out the debt of revenge which the daring of hig
companions had incurred, and many an English prisoner,
escaping from the Spanish dungeons, carried home tales of
horrors which made the blood boil with desire for retaliation.
Moreover, there were immense riches to be won on the Spanish
main. The Spaniards at home, too, by reason of their
religion and the attempts they had made — and were still pre-
pared to make — to force it upon England, furnished another
cause for revenge. Thus such men as Drake, Hawkins, Howard,
Raleigh and Grenville were actuated by motives which were
curiously diverse. Religion, discovery, revenge and gold
were with them impulses of almost equal weight. Their
hearts were stirred by the tales of the cruelties of the
Inquisition, and their imaginations fired by the stories of the
wonders and the wealth of the Americas. While the profits
to be gained by a favourable voyage were such as to justify
the risk and compensate, in some degree, for the perils of the
voyage, it was the same chivalrous spirit as sent all Europe,
at the bidding of Peter the Hermit, against the Infidel, that
actuated these rovers of the sea. They believed themselves
the champions of Protestantism against the Spaniard and that
to damage his power, to capture his galleons, to free his slaves,
and, above aU, to destroy his influence and break the power
of the Inquisition was a task meet for God's elect, and it
was in this spirit that they met the Spaniard with a fanaticism
as great as his own. It has been the fashion during these
latter years to term such adventurers pirates, and to see in
such a man as Drake or Raleigh nothing more than a
successful buccaneer, one whose animal courage was beyond
question, but whose pretences to religion were almost on a par
with the devotion of an African savage to his fetish.

As an illustration of the feeling with which they set about
their task, the following quotations may suffice. The first
is from a letter of Raleigh's, who had gained the consent of

TUK EARLY NAVIGATORS. 41

the statesmen of his ilay to an atleiii[)t to colonise Guiana.
The attempt was never made, for the Spanish Axmada called
for the services of all such as he at home.

" Who will not be persuaded that now at length the great
"judge of the world bath heard the sighs, groans and
" lamentations, hath seen the tears and blood of so many
" millions of innocent men, women and children, afflicted,
" robbed, reviled, branded with hot irons, roasted, dis-
" membered, mangled, stabbed, whipped, racked, scalded
" with hot oil, put to the strappado, ripped alive, beheaded
" in sport, drowned, dashed against the rocks, famished,
" devoured by mastifis, burned and by infinite tortures
" consumed, and purposetb to scourge and plague that
" cursed nation, and to take the yoke of servitude from that
"distressed people, as free by nature as any Christian."

When one remembers that in addition to the list of tortures
given above, English prisoners were subject to the terrors
of the Inquisition, and that the said prisoners included
to\vnsmen, friends and brothers of the " Sea-dogs " of Ehza-
heth's time, one begins to understand somewhat of the hatred
of Spain which filled their hearts and led them to those
reprisals which ended in the destruction of the naval and
colonial supremacy of Spain and the development of the
British empire. The noble words which follow are the
concluding sentences of a memorial, drawn up by Sir
Humphry Gilbert after his examination by her Majesty's
Privy Council, as to the results of his voyages.

" Never therefore mislike with me for taking in hand any
" laudable and honest enterprise, for if through pleasure or
" idleness we purchase shame, the pleasure vanisheth, but
" the shame abideth for ever.

" Give me leave therefore, without oSonce, always to live and
" die in this mind : that he is not worthy to live at all, that,
" for fear or danger of death shunneth his country's service

42 BEITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

" and his own honour, seeing that death is inevitable and the
" fame of virtue immortal, wherefore, in this behalf, viutare
" vel timere sperno."

No one can read such great words as these and not feel
that the spirit which actuated these seamen of old was far
different from the \nilgar greed of gain or the bloody lust of
slaughter. No one who reads and can appreciate such high
thoughts as these, can associate the noble spirit and high
aspirations which shine through them with the name of pirate.
Even Hawkins, first of English slave dealers though he was,
showed himself actuated by the like spirit. Among the
regulations of his voyage was one to the ell'ect that the crew
should gather together "morning and evening to serve God,"
while a fire that occurred on one of his ships was made the occa-
sion to banish profane swearing, a notable achievement in the
days of Elizabeth, when everyone's mouth, from her Majesty's
downward, was full of strange oaths. Altogether, the picture left
us by the Sea-dogs of the Elizabethan age is one of gallantry,
disinterestedness and high heroic energy, all the more remark-
able since it was the result of no special discipline or training
but a spontaneous growth among the men themselves.

The North-West Passage. — The same spirit was shown in
the many expeditions to the Arctic seas. Hither the attention
of the navigators was early drawn in the hope of finding a
north-west passage to India. " The ice was strong but God
was stronger," says one of Frobisher's men, after grinding for
a day and a night among the icebergs, not waiting for God to
come dowT3 and split the ice for him but toiling manfully
through the long hours, and then, when all had been done
that man could do, rendering the glory to the Creator.

The attempts to discover a North-East or North-West
Passage furnish some of the finest episodes of that stirring
time. The first among our countrymen to seek to traverse the

THK KAULY NAVIGATORS. 43

»ce-bound highway was Willoughby, who with two ships started
m the year 1553. Of the vicissitudes of the voyage, we know
nothing. Of its fate we unhappily know more. Two years
later souae Russian fishermen found in the haven of Arzina, in
Lapland, two ships fast frozen in the ice and round about them
Willoughby and his companions — seventy dead men. The
ships were freighted with their frozen crews and set sail foj
England, but being, as is surmised, unstaunch by reason of
their two winters' sojourn among the ice, sank by the way
with their dead and those who navigated them. There followed
Martin Frobisher, with two ships the Gabriel and the Michael
and a pinnace, on June 9th, 1576. His second voyage took
place in the next year and his third, with a fleet of fifteen
ships, in the next.

His successor was John Davis, a man of remarkable daring,
skill as a navigator, and peculiar sweetness of character and
disposition ; a man whose epitaph is written on the map of the
world, in enduring testimony to the success of his voyages. He
was the first to reach the great ice -barrier, which he coasted
for thirteen days without finding an opening. Then his crew
began to murmur and to fall sick and become faint-hearted, as
well they might, for ropes and shrouds were stiff with ice, and
there was none of the elaborate precautions against cold and
hunger that are to be met with in modern voyages of explora-
tion to the frozen seas. But the remainder of the story shall
be given in his own words.

" Our men through this extremity began to grow sick and
"feeble and withal hopeless of good success; whereupon,
" very orderly, with good discretion they entreated me to
" regard the state of this business and withal advised me
" that in conscience I ought to regard the safety of mine own
" life with the preservation of theirs, and that I should not
" through overboldness, leave their widows and fatherless
" children to give me bittor curses .... WbiToupcin

44 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

" seeking help from God, the fountain of all mercies, it

" pleased His Divine :Majesty to move my heart to prosecute

" that which I hope shall be to His glory and to the conten-

" tation of every Christian mind."— (Hakluyt's Voyages.)

The determination thus arrived at was to make over his

large vessel, the Mermaid, of 120 tons, to such as wished to

return, while he with a volunteer crew prosecuted the voyage

in the Moonlight, a craft of 35 tons, " thinking it better to

die with honour than to live with infamy." The upshot of the

decision, so adventurously taken, was the discovery of that

great arm of the sea ever since knowTi as Davis Strait. He

reached four degrees north of the highest point yet attained,

coasted along the shores of America and discovered Hudson

Strait, which was then and for many a year after believed

to be the longed-for passage to the Indies.

The Buccaneers. — The great adventurers of the days of
Elizabeth were succeeded by a race not less adventurous,
hardy and daring, but who were actuated rather by a greed
of gain than by any of those heroic aspirations which had
stimulated their forerunners. Early in the seventeenth
century, as soon as it was shown that the Spanish power
was no longer supreme upon the sea, there flocked to the
West Indies crowds of hardy seamen, English, French and
Dutch, aU burning with the desire to prey upon Spanish
commerce and upon the Spanish colonies. These were the
buccaneers. The Enghsh and French were mainly pirates,
the Dutch confined their attention chiefly to the less daring
but equally lucrative trade of smuggling. The business was a
profitable one and the seas round the Spanish main swarmed
with thousands of swift and well-equipped ships, vliebooten as
the Dutch called them, a name corrupted by men of other
speech mto freebooters or filibusters.

The term buccaneer is derived from the Caribbean word
boucan, a place or hut for smoking meat, and was given in the

THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 46

first place to those Europeans who liad settled in the West
Indies for the purpose of hunting the wild animals to be
found there and of smoking their flesh to preserve it for
exportation. The immense profits of piracy caused the
abandonment of these more peaceful pursuits, the number
of the buccaneers increased, and they banded together under
a rough code of laws as the " brethren of the coast," among
whom all provision for sustenance was in common and whose
fellowship supplied the place of those domestic ties from
which their lawless deeds had cut them off for ever. The
chief virtue of the community was physical courage, which,
urged by desperation, frequently reached a marvellous pitch.
But that same fear of the gallows, which prompted many of
their most daring exploits, frequently converted the bold
adventurer into a reckless savage, and the terrible deeds of
buccaneers became a byword throughout Europe and finally
led to expeditions for their extermination.

As often as not, indeed, the privateers who were licensed
against them ended by joining them, until the buccaneers
became strong enough, had they been elliciently led, to have
conquered all the Americas. As it was, they made themselves
a name of terror along the shores of New Spain, passed into
the Pacific, and swept its coasts as far as California. Van Horn
and Morgan, Grammont, Lolonois and Dampier were names
of fear in the Spanish main. When Spain abandoned her claim
to the exclusive possession of the West Indies, many of them
were induced, by the promise of gi-ants of land, to settle
down and abandon piracy for planting. For a long time the
little island of Tortuga had been their chief place of resort.
Here they had established a colony where they spent their
gains in wild excess, and where also crowded those traders
who lived by miniptcring to their vices. A terrible attack by
Spain,- while its fighting population was at sea, laid waste tha
island and destroyed its rude civilisation. Then France seized

46 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

it, permitted none but French buccaneers to resort thither,
and Tortuga became a French colony. The English rovers,
seeking another haunt, found one ready to hand in Jamaica,
which had only just been cuptured by Cromwell's forces, under
Penn and Venables. Thither a vast number of the buccaneers
repaired, and lent powerful aid in repulsing Spanish attempts
to recover the island in 1657 and 1658. Because of this
assistance, the English governor countenanced them. The
island became their headquarters ; its wealth was vastly
increased by their extravagances, and its morals were vitiated
by their debauchery.

"Port Royal, itself, united to more than regal opulence the worst vices
and the lowest depravity that ever disgraced a seaport; nor could any-
thing else be expected in a city whose most honoured denizens were
buccaneers, whose most welcome visitors were slave traders."— Maetin.

Henry Morgan.— First and most formidable on the roll of the bucca-
neers was the name of Henry Morgan. At the height of his fame, the
terror of his name was such that women used it to awe fractious children
»0 sleep, while themselves lying awake in quaking terror. His roving
disposition early appeared, when, in his youth, rather than settle to the
humdrum routine of a country village, he took ship for the Barbadoea,
paying for his passage thither by allowing himself at the journey's end, to
be sold, for a term, into the "white slavery" of the plantations. The
period of service expired, he was attracted by the lawless life of the
buccaneers, then beginning to rise into notoriety. Here he found fitting
scope for his talents. He speedily showed himself more lawless, brutal
and debauched than the worst of his companions, while his daring and
genius as a commander speedily won him pre-eminence among the crew.
He was a bom leader of men, and his ambition was equal to his talents.
Under his rule, the buccaneers were orpanised into something like discipline,
and he determined to attempt, with their aid, the great enterprise on which
he had set his mind, nothing less than the conquest of the whole of the
Spanish Americas; an undertaking from which he hoped to win great
plunder for himself and perhaps new dominion for his country.

His first attempt was on Portobello, which he carried by assault. Hero
ki!j resources and anscrupulousness were displayed in his infamous but
effective device for enabling his followers to scale the walls in safety.
Before delivering the assault, he had captured certain neighbouring
religions houses, and the monks and nuns from these were now forced np

Till-: KAKLY NAVIGATOIIS. 47

the scaling; ladders in the front of the stormers, ilori^an anlculatiiiR thai
tne reverence inspired by their calling would prevent the defenders (roiu
flving upon them, and that their presence would thus secure his troops
from loss. The city was captured, looted and left, a very wilderness of
desolation. The fame of the exploit brought recruits to bis flag till he
found himself at the head of an army, small it is true, but terrible in its
strength, since each man fought with the fear of death behind him.
Panama was the next aim, and towards this stronghold of the Spanish
power in America, the buccaneers now marched. Ten days' toilsome
journey lay between them and their goal. Provisions were scarce, the
difficulties of the route immense, but the buccaneers pressed forward. The
dawn was rising on its glittering roofs v.'hen they sicthted the city, and
moved by sudden impulse, the great band of organised ferocity threw
itself, as one man, on its knees, "rendering thanks to God for so auspicious
a termination to the voyage."

Success attended them here as at Portobello, and after the usual interval
of debauchery and license, the adventurers returned with a hundred and
seventy mules laden with their plunder— gold, silver and jewels. Signs
were not, however, wanting that Morgan's success had aroused the jealousy
of his companions ; and plots for his deposition were speedily on foot.
Morgan wisely determined not to await their developi: ent and, with the
greater part of the spoil in hii possession, set sail for England, adding to
the greatness of his notoriety, the distinction of being the only buccaneer
of any standing who had robbed his comrades. In England his good
qualities, or perhaps, the wealth he had acquired, earned him the favour
ol King Charles II. by whom he was successively made Commander in the
Royal Navy, Knight, and Governor of Jamaica, in which last office, says
an old historian : "Sir Henry much distinguished himself by the vigilance
and severity with which he suppressed those unlawful bodies of pirates
called buccaneers." Thus after Morgan's defection, buccaneering began
to wane. He hanged so many of his old comrades that the work grew
scanty and unremunerative. The red flag still floated here and there in
the Spanish main, and now and again was seen at the head of a successfal
foray on the coast, but at Morgan's death the buccaneers, their haunts
ravaged and their ships burned, had practically become extinct as a class.
The romance whioh had surrounded their calling was gone. They became
mere vulgar piraies, and as such, every man's hand was against them.
With the death of the notorious Captain Kidd at "E.>:ecution Dock," thirty
years later, the name of buccaneer ceased to be a name of terror among
the shipping and in the seaports of the Western main.

The Plantations. -The earliest Spanish settlements had
been made upon the Islands of the "West Indies. The whole of

48 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

the West Indian group, settled and unsettled, was included in
the dominions which the Spaniards claimed, and to which
they gave the title of New Spain. But the wealth there
sought by the Spaniards was that which could be obtained with
little expenditure of labour — their booty was the gold and
silver that lay almost exposed upon the soil or which had been
laboriously acquired by the inhabitants, and which was now
ravished from them by the conquering and rapacious Spaniards.
The store of wealth was small, new and richer discoveries
tempted them to Peru and Mexico, and the beautiful
islands, once drained of their portable riches, were almost
totally neglected. No account was made of the wonderful
fertility of the soil, in time to come to prove a source of
riches greater even than the gold and silver mines of the main-
land. When Spain, through pressure elsewhere, tacitly
relinquished her claims, there were not wanting men of other
nationalities — English, French and Dutch, capable of dis-
cerning the potentialities of these islands. Vast planta-
tions of sugar, cocoa, indigo and cotton sprang up. The
fame of the plantations spread; the riches of the planters
were magnified and other islands hitherto unoccupied by
Europeans, became in their turn great centres of human
industry, and of immigration from the home coimtry. But the
great difficulty the planters had to face was the scarcity of
labour. The cruelty of the Spaniards had alienated the native
races ; indeed, in too many cases, had all but exterminated
them, and what might have been flourishing plantations now
languished for want of labour. Cromwell, when Jamaica had
fallen into his hands, solved the difficulty, characteristicall3',by
ordering the Scotch government to coUect all the idle and dis-
affected persons they could find, and to ship them off to
Jamaica. Many others were procured from Ireland, where,
after the terrible settlement of the country by Henry Cromwell,
there must have been many to whom this compulsory exile

THE EARLY NAVIGATORS. 40

was a positive benefit. Following this example, it became
ouBtomary to despatch prisoners, on conviction, to the
plantations, where they were sold into slavery for a term of
years, and grants of such [jrisoners were frequently made to
persons who had influence with the government, or some
claim upon it which, it was desirable, should be satisfied.
Prisoners taken in battle or persons found, in a time of disafi^ec-
tion, with arms in their hands, were often subjected to similar
treatment. Thus, after Sedgemoor, considerable numbers of
those tried by the infamous Jeffreys were thus despatched, being
granted by the Crown, in the first place, to various persons and
sold by these to merchants ; who, in turn, calculated to make a
profit by disposing of their white slaves to the American
planters, (A similar plan was tried in the case of the Austrahan
colonies. The secession of the United States had put an end
to the transportation of convicts to the plantations of America,
and the discoveries of Captain Cook came at the exact moment
when the nation was most exercised as to the disposal of its
convicted prisoners.) But the supply of white labour was by
no means sufficient to meet the demand. Hence arose the
dependence of America on Africa for labour. Spaniards and
Portuguese sought labourers for the work in their mines, the
planters found them no less essential upon their vast farms of
BUgar, tobacco, indigo, cotton or rice.

The Slave Trade.— The dilliculty was met by the introduc-
tion of negro slaves. An Englishman, Su: John Ha'vkins,
is notorious as being the first European slave trader to
the Americas. Slaves had, however, been bought and sold from
time immemorial in the markets of the east. They were now
introduced into those of the west. The Portuguese were the
first to develop the trade to anything like considerable pro-
portions. Their colonies on the African coast, furnished an
mexhaustiblc supply of negroes, and their plantations m Brazil
were the first to take advantage of it. Later, when the decline

D

50 BRIT.SH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

of the Portuguese empire in the east placed their carrying
trade in the hands of the English, the slave trade went with it,
and England became the great slave trading nation of the world.

The introduction of negroes into the West India planta-
tions once effected, they speedily became indispensable, and
every planter set apart a share of his capital for the purchase
of slaves, and a portion of his yearly profits for the maintenance
of his stock ; for the effect of the arduous labour and the terrible
conditions under which it was carried on, was such, that the slave
mortahty became extreme, averaging, over a considerable number
of years, no less than 16 percent, of the total negro population.

It is a matter of regret that the slaves in the English
plantations were legally worse off than in those of any other
nation. There the slaves were entirely at the mercy of their
owner; in the French colonies they had certain civil rights
secured to them by the Code Noir, passed in 1685, while the
Spanish planters showed themselves more humane than the
original conquerors of the country, or the Spanish gold-seekers
who followed them. It is possible that without slave labour,
it would have been impossible to cultivate the West Indies, to
anything like the same extent, since the climate forbids
anything like sustained labour to the natives of temperate
climates on peril of their lives. This of comrse argues nothing
in favour of the nefarious traffic in slaves. Under the condi-
tions which obtain at present, free labour is not only more
desirable than slave labour from the point of view of morality,
but also from that of economy. The researches of poUtical
economists have sho^\Ta that no form of labour is so dear as
slave labour, and that onlj- the most remunerative crops are
capable of sustaining the heavy expenditure it entails, and that
wherever it has been efficiently replaced by free labour, the rate
of production has increased and the prosperity, both of the
community and of the individual planter has been stimulated
by the change.

BRITISH RDLB IN INDU. 61

CHAPTER III.

British Rule in India.

SECTION I.— BEFORE 1858.

The history of British rule in India may be fairly said to have
commenced with the last day of the sixteenth century, when
Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory, keenly desirous for
the glory of England and no less keenly alive to her own
interests, granted a charter to " The Governors and Company
of the Merchants of the City of London trading to the
East Indies," empowering them to carry on trade, acquire
territory by treaty or conquest, and raise troops for the
defence of their possessions.

The riches of the Indies v/ere, however, by no means
unknown. Drake and Cavendish had called there on their
return " by way of the Portugals," from their adventurous
voyages, and English merchants had carried on a successful,
if limited, trade by the overland route. Moreover, the daring
of English seamen had wrested from the Portuguese, then the
masters of the trade to the East, the spoUs of war in the shape
of many a richly laden galleon. But in the year 1580, the
union of the crowns of Spain and Portngp.l converted the
latter into little more than a province of her more powerful
neighbour, and from this time her power upon the sea began
to decline, — Spain, the predominant partner, concentrating all
her strength upon the development of her American dominions.
As a result, the Dutch gradually acquired the connnercial
■upremacy of the East and the magnilicent Portuguese

52 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

possessions dwindled sadly by degrees, tUl they came to
consist of only a few smaU separate stations, of which Goa and
Diu were the chief.

The Company in India. — The first voyage of the new
company was undertaken under the command of the vetiBran
Lancaster, in 1601. This, however, together with the next
two, were to the Spice Islands and not to the mainland
of India, a fact which brought the English traders into direct
and open rivalry with the Dutch.

In 1609, however. Captain Hawkins lauded at Surat on a
mission, unfortunately unsuccessful, to the Shah Jehan, praying
hica to grant facilities for trade. Captain Best, in 1612,
was more fortimate and readily obtained from the Mogul
permission to establish an English factory at Surat.

The factory was built in the same year, and with it the
foundation of the British Empire in India was laid. The three
years which followed were years of steady development, and
at their close the intercourse between England and Hindustan,
hitherto spasmodic, had grown into a regiilar,' if somewhat
attenuated, stream of commerce. In 1615, the first English
ambassador reached the court of the Great Mogul in the
person of Sir Thomas Roe, to whose tact and diplomatic
powers the Company were indebted for the favour shown them
by that potentate, for the concession of the right to plant
factories anywhere in his dominions, for their secmity from
vexatious exactions and for various facilities in the transport
of their merchandise to and from their settlements.

The English and Dutch. — Meanwhile the progress of the
trade with the Spice Islands had aroused the apprehensions of
the Dutch, and the traders were speedilj' in open rivalry.
True, efforts were made by the home governments to patch
up a compromise, and in 1619 a treaty of peace was signed.
By this the English company was to claim as its right

BKITISU RL'LE IN INDIA. 58

one-third of the spicos from the Dutch islands and one-half

of the pepper from Java, while the forces of both nations were

to unite to hasten the decline of Portugal. The news of the

treaty brought a momentary cessation of hostilities. The

fleets exchanged the battle cannonade for harmless sedvos of

poUte congratulation. But the peace was as transient as the

smoke of that salutation, the rivalry ripened into jealousy

and jealousy broke into open warfare.
The Massacre of rm. i- xu ^i

Ambuyna 1623 cumax came with the notorious

massacre at Amboyna. The Dutch, pro-
fessing to fear their English rivals, suborned certain of their
Japanese servants to swear to the existence of a plot among
the British for the capture of the fort and the subsequent
expulsion of the Dutch. It was patent that there was little
to fear, since the Dutch were vastly more powerful than their
rivals. The former, however, glad of any pretext, seized the
most prominent of the English, put them to the torture, and,
extorting from them in their agony a confession of the truth
of the accusation, made this the ground for a secret attack
upon the remainder of the English traders. The massacre
which followed caused England to thrill with indignation, but
the country was too deeply involved in her quarrel with Spain
to lightly enter upon war with Spain's greatest enemy. The
Dutch government promised retribution but took no very
decided steps towards discovering those of its subjects implic-
ated, although the question furnished suliicient matter for
negotiations extending over some two j-ears. The upshot of
the whole matter was that the English trade with the Spice
Islands was ruined. The Dutch, in reprisal for the alleged
treachery, made themselves masters of the English factories
in the islunds, thus monopolising the trade as at first.

The etfect of this check was in the end beneficial to
England. All her energies were now directed to the mainland
of India, where she began to make rapid headway. Hero the

54 BKITIiU DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS.

Dutch, though equally hostile, had not the same power of
offence, for the East India Company had since 1615 grown
with such rapid strides as to make it a power to be reckoned
with.

Its career was, however, by no means unchequered. Its
adversaries were many. These included the trading com-
panies of other nations and " pirate " companies of its own,
for the possession of so profitable a monopoly was by no means
grateful to other traders, who cast a covetous eye on the riches
of the East. The native rulers, too, saw its encroachments with
growing apprehension, while the depredations of pirates and
(in war-time) privateers, upon its fleet made considerable
inroads upon its profits. Moreover, its growing wealth made
it the prey of impecunious monarchs, whose coffers needed
replenishing and who were quick to seize upon the renewal
of its charter as a convenient occasion for mulcting it in heavy
and ever-increasing sums.

The Pepper Loan. — Charles I., in 1610, seized the pepper warehoused
by the Company, and valued, wholesale, at 2s. Id. per lb. and sold it at
Is. 8d. He obtained £50,626 in cash ; the traders were paid in bills, which
were unmet for many years.

In 1624, Morris Abbott, brother of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, became Governor of the Company, and under his
able administration its affairs steadily prospered. The year
1630 saw the final defeat of the Portuguese, and England had
now to reckon only with the Dutch. The great danger was
lest the weak, though thriving, settleuaents should be invaded
from the great Dutch colony of Java, and it was to guard
against the possibility of this that the factory of Armegon, on
the Coromandul coast, was strongly- fortified, and the factories
in what was after the Madras Presidency protected by the
erection of Fort St. George in 1639. The extent of the British
power in India at this period may be gathered from the fact
that the defence was entrusted to two imposing garrisons of

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 55

twen.y-three and twenty-six respectively. Bombay, part of
the dower of Catherine of liraganza, was leased by Charles II.
to the Company in 16G8, and in 1685 replaced Surat as its
headquarters on the Malabar coast. In lO'J-i, the Bengal
Presidency, with Fort William — afterwards Calcutta — as its
centre, was founded.

At the time of Ihe foandation of the fnctory of Madras, the affaire of the
Comiiany had grown to sucli an extent that the dockyard at Deptford was
not large enough to provide sufBcient accommodation, and a piece of
ground was purchased in a marsh at Blackwall and a new dock built. The
Company now built its own ships, made its own sails and cordage, baked
its own bread and made its own gunpowder, and, generally, did OTerylhing
that was needed in the fitting out of its vessels. It was not, however,
able to build fast enough for its needs, and was compelled to hire ships
io iiinkp up its fleets.

John Company. — Chief among the foes of the company were
those merchants who advocated the policy of free-trade to the
Indies and consequently deprecated the existence of the
company.

These steadily opposed its monopoly, and with such success,
that Cromwell was all but induced to suppress it. The danger,
however, blew over for the time, but reached a crisis in the
reign of William III. when the free-traders succeeded in
obtaining a charter of incorporation as the " General Company
of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies," and
commenced a competition which threatened the ruin both of
themselves and their adversaries. Mainly through the offices
of Godolphin, the rivals were brought to agree to share their
profits, and six years later, in 1708, the two were amalgamated,
as the " United Company of Merchants of England Trading to
the East Indies," a body which speedily came to be known by
the familiar appellation of " John Company." It endured, as a
political power, for a hundred and fifty years, until, as a result
of the Mutiny of 18."»7, the government of India was taken
over by the British Crown. As a trading corporation, it
existed until 1878.

56 BRITI.-5H DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

English and Dutch at Sea. — As already indicated, the Dutch
were the greatest rivals of the English in the East. Mainly
through the wealth gained in their eastern trade, the Dutch
had, by thifs time, become the first nation in Europe. Their
fleet '.vas greater than that of all the other European kingdoms
together, and in 1672, we find them strong enough to defy the
united power of England and France, while the spirit of
commercial enterprise, reflected on the national life, gave a
marvellous stimulus to art, learning and industry.

After this, however, a long series of disastrous wars against
England, France and Spain, brought about a decline in the
importance of Holland, and a consequent lessening of her
maritime and colonial power. The knell of Dutch supremacy
in the East was sounded by Clive, when, in 1758, he attacked
them at Chinsurali both by land and sea, and forced them to an
ignominious capitulation.

England and France. — The Dutch colonies had been
managed on strictly commercial principles. The welfare
of the inhabitants and indeed of the settlers, was in every case,
subordinated to the desire of gain. The trade was in the
hands of companies of merchants at home, and these must
have their dividends whatever befell. As a result, Holland
quickly lost the supremacy she had wrested from Portugal, and
France replaced her, as England's great rival in India. Indeed,
ihe constant warfare between England and France during the
eighteenth century, was, in the main, the outcome of their
commercial and colonial rivalry. A French East India
Company had been founded in 1604, and this was followed by
other companies in 1611, 1615, 1642 and 1644. In 1719. the
East India, the West India, Senegal and China companies were
amalgamated under the title of the " Company of the Indies " —
a corporation which was only iinally abolished by the National
Assembly in 1796.

BUITISH RULE IN INDIA. 57

The earlier part of the eighteenth century was indeed the
most flourishing period of French colonisation. Her ministers,
quick to recognise the potential benefits to be derived from the
possession of colonies, were liberal in their support and careful
in their regulation. In England, on the other hand, the
government, up to the time of Charles II., had taken no official
notice of the colonies. Then a Committee of the Privy
Council: "The Committee of Trade and Plantations," was
formed, but the Stuarts took little or no interest in the welfare
of England beyond the seas, and it was not until the reign of
William III., that the British colonies received any adequate
measure of government support. Hence, while British power
in India grew as a result of the efforts of the Company's
servants, French influence. su[iported by the government,
developed at a far more rapid rate. Before entering upon the
great duel between England and France for the Empire of
India, it will be desirable to glance for a moment at the
condition of India, and the circumstances which made it
possible for a band of adventurers, for the most part untrained
to war, to conquer a country of such immense size, so great a
population, and such vast resources.

The Mogul Empire. — Enclosed on two sides by the sea and
shut off from the continent of Asia on the north by the
impassable barrier of the Himalayas, it would almost seem aa
though India was secure against invasion. But the vast
barrier of the Himalayas is vulnerable at one point, and the
whole history of India, up to the time when Vasco da Gama
discovered the sea-route to it round the Cape of Good Hope,
centres in the successive waves of invasion which rolled
through Afghanistan and the Himalayan passes over the fertile
plains of the north and north-west.

Chief among these inroads is that of Mahmoud in 1001 a.d.
This leader, by birth a Turk, by religion a Mohammedan, and
by disposition a fanatic, conceived the idea of converting India

5S BRITISH DOMINIOXS BEYOND THE SEAS.

to Islam; and for five centuries, he and his successors continued
the promulgation of the Mohammedan faith, and claimed the
title of Lords of All India. With the invasion of Baber, in
1524, was laid the foundation of the great I\Iogul Empire. By
the middle of the sixteenth centurj-, the rule of the Moguls
had been extended to cover almost all northern India. The
Dekhau remained, however, uncouquered until the time of the
Great Emperor Aurungzeb, who swept over it like a devastat-
ing scourge in 1683.

His conquest was at once the high-water mark of the
^logul power, and the couamencement of its fall. The tribes
of the Dekhan were of vastly different fibre to the effeminate
races of the northern plains, and their princes, roused by his
cruelty and the oppression of his rule, banded in the great
Maratha confederation to shake off the Mohammedan yoke.
WhUe their conqueror lived, they could make but little headway
and remained nominaUj' subject to his rule. At his death, the
power of the Mogul rapidly declined. His successors possessed
neither his military genius nor his administrative abihty, and
the Marathas steadUy grew in extent, in power, and in
independence.

On the north, too, the empire suffered. Here the warlike
Afghan tribes, swept down, time after time, by the path
the Moguls themselves had made, while, in 1739, Shah Nadir
of Persia swooped upon Delhi, their capital, sacked the city,
and carried oflf booty to the value of Je32,000,000 sterlmg. The
blow practically ruined the empire and left the Marathas the
masters of India. Their ascendency was, however, by no
means universal or secure. Powerful Hindu princes, swaying
vast territories, still held aloof from the confederation or took
arms against them, openly denying the supremacy of the
Peshwa, and asserting their own independence. Thus at the
very time when the relations between the English and French
traders in India became strained to the breaking point, the

BKITISU RULE IN INDIA.

..••^ «*' (I \CEYLON

"^ I N I) I A

/ A' /J J

/I A' OCEAN

ID Lo-ij £ of Crtr^.,-^f

Ittlph.KilUot it*

60 BRITISH DOMIXIOXS BEYOND THE SEAS.

country itself, in lieu of being a united nation, capable o!
presenting a common front to an invader, was merely a con-
glomeration of states, eillier passively indifferent or openly
hostUe to one another, and with no common ground of
nationality, interest or religion, on which they could unite. It
is to the state of anarchy, which existed in India in the
eighteenth century, that we must attribute the ease with which
the British empire was founded against such overwhelming
odds.

THE FR2NCH IN THE KARNATIK.— The Anglo-French

Struggle (First Phase). — The disorder incident upon the down-
fall of the Mogul Empire was greatest in the south-east. Here,
too, the English and French traders had their chief stations.
At home, the peace policy of "Walpole was being gradually
broken down and the relations between England and France
were becoming more and more strained, untU, in 1744, the
War of the Austrian Succession yielded place to a definite contest
between England and France. Although the Peace of Utrecht
had made England Mistress of the Seas, she was not, so far, a
match for the united strength of France and Spain, the one
striving to attain the sovereignty of the seas and the other
to retain something like her old supremacy. For the moment,
France held the upper hand in eastern waters and Labour-
donnais, the French governor of Mauritius, sent a fleet against
the British stronghold of Madras, besieged Fort George,
captured it and held it, with its garrison and stores, to ransom,
pledging his honour that a moderate sum only should be
exacted.

His success roused the jealousy of his superior in the
Indies — Dnpleix, the governor of Pondicherry. The latter, a
man of immense ambition and overweening vanity, interposed,
chose in his spleen to ignore the terms of the capitulation,
rased Fort George to the ground, carried the prisoners in

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 61

briuuiph to Pondicherry, and, without the formality cf con-
Bulting the native ruler, added Madras to the French
dominions. The Nawab of the Karnatik, wroth at this
summary annexation of his possessions, gathered an army of
10,000 men and marched against the French, only to find his
forces routed with the utmost ease by a body of 250 French
troops aided by some 700 sopo3's (sipahis), armed and dis-
ciplined after the European fashion.

The victory of St. Thome is the key to the conquest of
India. It proved that the great armies which the Indian
princes might bring into the field were of little avail against

Europeans or troops under European
Onplclx. discipline. It showed Dupleix what he

had long conceived, the possibiUty of found-
ing a great French empire in India upon the rains of the petty
native kingdoms. For a time, Fort St. David became the
.headquarters of the British power in the Karnatik. Dupleix,
stimulated by his success at Madras and bent upon driving
the English from India, now pat forth all his efforts to capture
it. In 1748, however, an English fleet, under Boscawcn,
succeeded in relieving it and turned the tables by besieging
Pondicherry. Before any definite issue had been arrived at,
news came of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Peace was
nominally settled : all conquests mutually restored. But the
enmity was as bitter as ever. Open hostilities were unpossible,
but the endless quarrels of the native princes oflfered an outlet
for the racial and commercial hatred that daily grew more
bitter between the traders.

The Anglo-French Struggle (Second Phase). — If EngUsh
and French in the Karnatik dared not proceed to open war
while the mother countries were at peace, they might at least
gratify their hatred by siding with the quarrels of the rival
princes. Dupleix, in particular, saw in this a means of
gratifying his ambition and proposed, should occasion offer, to

62 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

officer with Europeans the army of the native prince with
whom he sided. In this way he hoped to gradually consolidate
a force capable of defeating any army that could be brought
against him, and of ousting the only rivals able to defeat
his purposes.

Opportunity lent her aid to his ambitions. In the year
1748, died Azaf Jah, the Nizam or Viceroy of the Dekhan.
His possessions descended to his son Nazir Jang. The
Karnatik, the wealthiest of the provinces tributary to Nizam
of the Dekhan, was ruled by the Nawab Anwaru'din. There
were, however, pretenders in the field who sought to oust
both the Nizam and the Nawab. These were respectively
Salabat Jang, grandson of the late Niz4m, and Chanda Sahib,
a son-in-law of a former Nawab. These agreed to unite their
interests, invaded the Karnatik, and invoked the aid of the
French.

Dupleix seized the opportunity with avidity. He saw nim-
self, in imagination, ruUng the whole of southern India. The
Nizam of the Dekhan and the Nawab of the Karnatik, indebted
to him for their thrones, would, of necessity, be as wax in his
hands. He sent four hundred French troops and two thousand
sepoys, well armed and well disciplined.

The victory that ensued wag due, to a great extent, to their
valour. Anwaru'din was slain, his son Muhammed Ali, with
the remnant of his arm\', tied to Trichinopoly, the Nizam was
shortly afterwards assassinated by his own followers, Salabat
Jang and Chanda Sahib were enthroned at Haiderabad and at
Arcot respectively, and French influence was paramount in the
Dekhan.

Dupleix was the greatest man in India. He assumed open
equality with the Nizam. Privately he claimed to be his
superior. He took the title of " Governor of India from the
Krishna to Cape Comorin," acquired vast wealth and exercised
unbounded influence.

BRITISH RLLE IN INDIA. C3

The English had offered little opposition. They had,
mdeed, supported Muhammed All, the son of Anwarii'din, who
had assumed his father's title of Nawab of Artot. But his flag
flew over Trichinopoly alone, and here he was rigorously
besieged by Chauda Sahib and his French allies. His position
seemed hopeless and with his fall would go all hopes of an
extension of the British power in India. The native princes,
who had seen with awe the success of the French, had learned
to look with something like contempt upon the easily
vanquished British, and no aid might be anticipated from this
quarter. Still some attempt must be made. Delay meant
ruin. The traders at Madras succeeded in raising a body of
some two hundred English and three liundred sepoj's. The
question now was how to employ it.

To attempt the relief of Trichinopoly, with such a force,
was absurd. The difficulty was solved by a youth — Robert
Clive — formerly a writer in the Company's service, but now
emploj'ed in a half civU, half military capacity as commissary
to the forces. At his advice it was resolved to effect a
diversion by attacking the Nawab's capital, in the hope that to
save it, he would abandon Trichinopoly. The plan was
entertained and its execution entrusted to
,„., ' Clive himself. The scheme worked to a

1 101.

marvel. The garrison of Arcot, surprised in
the midst of a great storm, fled from the fort without a
blow. Clive entrenching himself behind its walls, prepared as
best he could, to meet the siege he knew would follow. Day-
light showed his weakness, and the troops which had fled in
dismay before his approach, now ralhed, roused the surrounding
country, and to the number of three thousand men, closely
invested the place. Clive, by a night surprise, put them to
utter rout, slew great numbers and returned to his camp
without the loss of a man. News of these proceedings reached
Trichinopoly and the Nawab detached four thousand troops,

64 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

under the command of his son Raja Sahib, for the recapture

of his capital. These, reinforced by two thousand men

from Vellore and by a detachment of French troops sent by

Dupleix, swept into their ranks the remnants of the fugitives

from Arcot, marched to the capital, surrounded it, and the

siege began.

The history of the siege is one of the most memorable

episodes in Indian history. The garrison consisted of one

hundred and twenty Europeans and about two hundred sepoys.

The general was a youth of twenty-five,

The Siege with no previous military training. Pro-

of Arcot, 1751. . . , 11 . 11 ■• ^

visions were scanty, walls failing mto ruins,

battlements too low to protect from the enemy's shot. Yet,

for fifty days, the garrison held out. The young commander

displaj-ed a wariness, vigilance and skill, that would have done

credit to a veteran commander. But the number of the

defenders grew daily less, the small stock of provisions

dwindled, the breach grew wider and an attempt at relief

failed. Yet the spirit of the garrison never wavered. In lieu

of the dissensions that might have been expected in a

body of mixed nationaUty there was displayed an unparalleled

unanimity. The sepoys in particular showed a rare devotion,

and a dog-like fidelity to Clive. When all hope seemed gone,

help came and from an unexpected quarter. A body of troops

had been hired from the Marathas to assist Muhammed Ali.

Considering his cause hopeless, these had remained massed

upon the frontier of the Karnatik. To them, imbued as they

were, by the French triumphs, with something like contempt

for the English arms, the stubborn valour of Olive's defence,

and the reckless daring of his attack came with the force of

a revelation. The heroism of the defenders stirred their

hearts. These, at least, were men, and they moved forward

to the rescue. Raja Sahib, apprised by his spies of their

approach, attempted by bribery and threats to cajole Clive

liRITlSU RULK IN' INDIA. 65

into yielding. Both were vain. The Raja determined upon
a tinal attempt. Religious enthusiasm and drunken daring
were invoked to lend their fury to the attack. The besieged
met it with the courage of despair. Three times the Rdji'a
troops swept in desperate onset against the fort : thrice they
were rolled back, broken and defeated. Neither fanaticism nor
intoxication availed against the steady bravery of the defenders
and the watchfulness and cool courage of Clive. The attack
had lasted only for an hour, but that hour had cost the
besiegers four hundred men. Morning dawned on an empty
camp. The Raja, with his army, was in full retreat.
The news of the exploit thrilled the Enghsh with hope, its
fame raised Clive to the rank of a leader of men. A little
force of two hundred Europeans and seven hundred sepoys
was raised, and with them as his command Clive once more
took the field. The Raja was defeated at Ami and Coverpak;
the French at Conjeveram, Covelong and Chinglepat, while
the besiegers of Trichinopoly were, in their turn, besieged,
and were forced at the end of two years to capitulate. Chdnd4
Sahib fell into the hands of the Marathis and was put to
death, and the English candidate, Muhammed Ali, was firmly
seated on the throne of the Karnatik as Nawab of Arcot.
Dupleix, viewing with dismay the failure of his plans and
smarting under the disgrace of his defeat, refused to recognise
the English choice and laid schemes for further war. But he
had to bear the stigma of failure. Enemies accused him at
home. His employers repudiated his schemes ; the merchants,
who would have gained by their success, united in revihug
him ; the matter of the succession to the throne of the
Kamdtik was referred to the home governments, and decided
against him ; he was superseded in his command, and returned
to Europe to die in poverty and disgrace. His successor,
Godelieu, signed a treaty recognising Muhammed Ali as the
Nawab of the Karnatik, restoring all the possessions that

B

66 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

Dupleix had gained, and agreeixig to cease, for the future, all
intrigues with native rulers.

Clive returned to Madras covered with honours, but with
shattered health. His condition, in fact, made it imperative
that he should return to England. Here he was the cynosure
of all eyes ; his victories were the theme of every tongue. Ha
entered Parliament but only to be unseated on a petition, the
costs of which, added to those of the election, had the effect
of practically reducing him to penury. In these straits his
thoughts turned to India again. The directors of the Company
showed themselves nothing loth to expedite his return. War
with France again seemed imminent, and neither the nation
nor the Company could afford to lose the services of a
" heaven-born general " like Clive. The directors appointed
him governor of Fort St. David, the king gave him his
commission as lieutenant-colonel, and in 1755 he sailed again
for India.

The Anglo-French Struggle. (Third Phase.)— Hardly was
the ink of the treaty reconciling the English and French
interests in India dry, before the differences in America
assumed so serious an aspect that war once more loomed
imminent. The English in India prepared to renew the
struggle. Before the threatened war was declared, Chve was
once more in the field, this time against the native ruler of
Bengal — Siraj-ud-Daula (Surajah Dowlah). This potentate
was a youth of eighteen, of weak temperament and ungovern-
able passions, whom unbridled licence had reduced to little
better than a wild beast. He had inherited, against the
English, a prejudice whose violence was equalled only by his
dread lest they should encroach upon his dominions and
authority.

The fear was now a lively one. The English of Calcutta, in
expectation of the outbreak of hostilities with the French, had
commenced to fortify their settlement, by deepening the

KRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 67

Mar4th& ditch — a relic of the time when Bengal was periodically
harried by the warlike tribes of the upland districts. A
pretext only was needed for the Nawdb to attack the settle-
ment— from the looting of which, moreover, he anticipated great
gain. The pretext was soon found. It chanced that a native,
a relative of his own, whom the Nawab had desired to plunder,
had fled for refuge to Calcutta, and had not been given up
by the governor immediately on demand. Siraj-ud-Daul4
raised a great army and marched towards Calcutta. The
residents were mere traders. They had not, like their
confreres in Madras, been schooled to arms by constant
quarrels with the French, and continual bickering with the
native rulers around them. Moreover, tales of the Nawab'a
cruelty had preceded him and his dislike to the English was
well known. The governor, with many others, fled, the few
who remained found it impossible to maintain their wall for
more than four days. The fort surrendered and its defenders,
to the number of one hundred and forty-six, fell mto the handa
of the Naw4b.

These were confined for the night in the mihtary prison —

the " black hole," a name which has won a terrible significance

in the record of horror, as the Black Hole of Calcutta. The

prison was some eighteen feet square, it had two small windows

for ventilation, and the time was June. The

The Black Hole wretched prisoners, protesting vainly that
of Calcutta. j^ could only be a joke, were driven mto
it at the point of the sword. Then the doors were
closed. The horror of that night has never been surpassed.
The captives after vainly appealing for mercy and offering
fruitless bribes to their gaolers, fought each other under foot,
in their struggles to get to the windows. The guards, fit
subjects of theur master, looked placidly on at their struggles,
jeeringly refusing to disturb their master, without whose orders

68 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THB SEAS,

oothmg could be done. The stifling heat of midsummer added
to the terror of suffocation the madness of thirst ; the scene
baffles description.

In the morning twenty-three spectres staggered out to
testify to a crime which thrilled aU India, as its memory' even
now thrills the world with horror. CUve, hastily collecting a
thousand men, took ship for Calcutta. He landed in December.
The Nawab, already feeling, in the loss of his revenues, the
folly of oppressing the English traders, was cowed by the
vigour of these measures into making overtures for peace.
Chve would have preferred to decide the matter, once and
for all, at the point of the sword. He was, however, but
the servant of the Company, his superiors had already decided
to treat, and he had perforce to change his role. From a
general he now became a diplomat. He was equally successful
but his success won him notoriety in lieu of fame. He appears
to have been imbued with the idea that, in eastern diplomacy,
nothing would serve but to meet the natives with their own
weapons of treachery, falsehood and deceit. Thus though in
his private dealings, one of the most honourable of men, he
displayed in the course of his negotiations with the Hindu
rulers a duplicity in no degree less than their own.

A nominal peace was patched up with Siraj-ud-Daul&, but
that prince showed himself in no wise to be trusted, and CUve
determined upon his deposition. A plot was hatching to
dethrone the Nawab and to confer the crown upon the leader
of his troops, Mir Jafar. Clive induced the English leaders
to lend their support, and, while flattering the Nawab into
security, took steps to secure his downfall. The Nawab's own
treachery accelerated his fall. The French had a settlement
at Chandernagar. He opened negotiations with them, while
still professing the utmost friendship for the English. Decisive
measures became necessary. An expedition was sent against
Chandernagar, Clive being in command by land and Admiral

BRITISU RULE IN INDIA. 69

Watson hy sea. The success of the movement was complete.
The settlement with all its stores fell into the hands of the
E iglish, and its garrison, including five hundred French troops,
became prisoners of war. Then, changing his tone, Clive wrote to
the Raja complaining of his duplicity and announcing his deter-
mination to exact, if necessary by force of arms, redress for the
injuries the Company and its servants had received at its
hands. For reply the Raja assembled his forces, marched to
Plassey, and there entrenched himself to await events.

Mir Jafar, who had agreed to desert with all his troops,
now hesitated and temporised. Clive was in a dilemma.
Whatever advantage European troops might hold over the
native armies, the position was a serious one. He had to
oppose, with a thousand European troops and two thousand
sepoys, an army consisting of some thirty

The Ba"Je 0' thousand foot and, worse than aU, fifteen
Plassey, 17S7.

thousand horse, drawn from among the

warlike races of the northern hills. Through a whole morning

he lay on the defensive, repelling attack after attack ; then,

when the Nawab's troops drew off for refreshment, Clive

assumed the offensive, and by a sudden onslaught threw the

whole camp into confusion. The attack was pressed home,

many of the most prominent of the Nawab's officers were slain,

and the ruler himself, lending a ready ear to suggestions of

flight, which accorded only too well with his own desires, left the

field, and the whole army fell into a panic. Mir Jafar, whose

prudence seems to have exceeded his valour and who had

hitherto held aloof, now threw his troops on Clive'a side and

the victory was won. Plassey made " John Company " master

of Northern India. True, Mir Jafar occupied the throne, but

it was as the Company's nominee and at the Company's good

pleasure.

From M\r Jdfar, on his elevation, the Company proceeded

to exact compensation for the misdeeds of his predecessor.

70 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

Vast stuns were claimed, amoanting in the aggregate to no
less than ^62.700,000. The treasury did not contain sufficient
to meet half these demands, and the Company, to meet the
deficiency, was granted a Zaminddri, or landholder's right,
over an extensive tract of land around Calcutta. Clive, two
years later, received from the Nawab the right to the land-tax
(Jagir) of the same district, a right which practically made
him owner of the soil and thus the overlord of his own masters
the " Company." He also accepted treasure to the amount
of about je250,000, a fact which was utihsed against him at
his trial in England, after his return, in 1760.

In spite of his pliancy the new ruler was not a success,
and was speedily superseded by his son-in-law, Mir Kasim.
The latter was a man of independent character and strong
abilities, quahties which brought him into conflict vdth the
officials of the Company, whose proceedings, particularly in
Ihe collection of the inland dues claimed by the Company,
certainly did not err on the side of justice or leniency. The
Nawab protested that the Company's servants habitually
disregarded his authority : the Government turned a deaf ear.
The Nawab thereupon abohshed all the inland duties in
dispute, thus placing the Company, as regards trade, on the same
footing as his own subjects. The Company refused to resign
its privileges and the quarrel daily waxed more bitter. The
climax came when the Nawdb's officers fired upon an English
boat. Then all Bengal flew to arms against the traders.
Some two thousand sepoys, in the service

Tna assacre o ^^ ^j^^ Company, were surprised and mas-
Patnai 1763.

sacred at Patna and about two hundred

Englishmen killed in other parts of the presidency. The

rising was vain. As before, the army of the Nawab could

make no stand against the disciplined valour of the Company's

troops, aided as they were by the prestige which attached to

the British arms. Mir Kasim, defeated at Gheriah and Udha-

BRITISH RULE IN IN'DU. 71

nala by Major Adams, fled to Oudh and claimed the hospitality
Stfid protection of the Nawdb Waiir, who, first refusing to
give him up at the demand erf the Company, ended by openly
espousing his quarrel in the field. To add to the danger,
symptoms of disaffection appeared among the Company's own
troops, which after smouldering for a time broke out into
the first Sepoy Mutiny (1764). The Nawub was, however,
decisively defeated by Major Munro at Baxar (1764) ; the
victory added Oudh to the dominions of the Company and
brought its ruler, after ineffectual endeavours to obtain aid
from the Manithas and Afghan chiefs, a suppliant to the
EngUsh oamp.

Clive'B Administration in Bengal (1765—1767) — In 1765,

Clive, now Baron Clive in the peerage of Ireland, returned to
India for the third time, wth the rank of Governor-general of
Bengal, and with a firm determination to carry out certain
reforms of the first importance, both in the administration of
India and in the Company's service.

Clive's administrative reforms took form as a system of

dual control, by which the native princes were to retain

the control of army and police, law and justice, while

the Company undertook the fiscal administration of the

province, receiving the revenues, which, however, were for some

time collected by native officials, and paj'ing over a sum of

dE600,000 to the Nawab, and half that amount as tribute to the

Grand Mogul. Abuses which sprang up under this new

system were, however, so great as to compel

The Treaty or the Company to talie more and more of the

Allahabad, 1763. government of the province into its own

hands. The reform of the service was an even more serious

matter. The Company's servants had always been iusutlici-

ently paid, and had been accustomed, with the cognisance of

their masters, to supplement their incomes by engagin;,' in

r2. BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

private trade. Much of the iuterual trade of the province had
fallen into their hands, and was carried on for their private
benefit, while the collectors rapidly amassed fortunes by tb«
most ruthless extortions from the natives. Even more
questionable means were employed. Bribery was rife and the
high officials of the Company habitually made large sums by
their exactions from the native princes. It was this state
of things that OUve now set himself to remedy. It may bs
imagined that the task was one of the utmost difficulty. Yet
in the face of the strenuous resistance of the whole service and
an actual mutiny of some two hundred of its members, the
reforms were carried. Salaries were increased with the money
raised by the imposition of a tax on salt, and the servants of
the Company were forbidden to receive gifts from the native
princes or to engage in private trade.

CHve's reforms aroused vast opposition, not only in India
but in England, and this opposition frustrated many of his
designs for the consolidation of the British power. In 1767, he
returned to England for the last time. There Indian affairs
were beginning to take fast hold upon a certain section of the
parliament, and his enemies foimd it an easy matter to move a
vote of censure upon his conduct during the period of his
adnainistration. Chief among the charges were the treachery
attendant upon the deposition of Siraj-ud-Daula: the dra\ving
up of a fictitious treaty with Mir Jafar for the purpose of
deceiving a Hindu — Omichand — who had threatened to betray
the plot against the Nawab, unless he received an immense
reward : the forgery of Admiral Watson's name to this treaty :
and finally, the enormous gifts he had received from Mir Jafar.

A stormy debate ensued. At its close, the Commons
fomid that Clive had received vast sums, and that to do so was
illegal. Here they stopped. The events had happened sixteen
years before. Clive's later administration had done much to
redeem them. He had since had many opportunities of

BRITISH RULE IN INDI\ 711

Increasing his fortune anil had held his hand. Moreover, waa
he not the saviour of India? The House refused to say that lie.
had abused his powers to his advantage, and instead, passed a
resolution to the eflect that " Robert CUve did, at the same
time, render great and meritorious services to his country."
The effect of the struggle was, however, lamentable. The
stress of the parliamentary conflict unhinged a mind which
had already shown a tendency to mental aberration, its
bitterness left him a prey to a settled melancholy, a painful
disease aggravated the evil, and in 1774, the greatest of English
generals since the days of Marlborough, died by his own hand.

The Anglo-French Struggle (Fourth Phase). While Clive

was consohdating the British power in Bengal, the French were

making strenuous efforts to recover their supremacy in the

Karnatik. A powerful French fleet had forced its way past

Admiral Pocock at Pondicherry, and had

adventurer in the French service, who had
been recently appointed to the supreme command in the East
Indies. The vigour of his proceedings and his skill in the field
earned him a temporary success. Fort St. David was captured,
and Madras besieged. The defence, in the hands of Olive's old
colleague and commander — Major Lawrence, was so ably
conducted, that after wasting two months, the French were
forced to retire. Meanwhile Sir Eyre Coote had arrived from
England, and lost no time in carrying the war into the enemy's
country. Wandewash was stormed and Pondicherry besieged.
Marching to its relief, Lally was met at Wandewash by Coote
and utterly defeated. The victory gained England the control
of the Karndtik. Lally, retreating, threw himself within the
walls of Pondicherry, but was compelled to capitulate in 176L
and with his siurrender ended the French power in India.
Lally was sent as a prisoner to England, but was hberaled on

74 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

parole to go to Paris, there to meet accusers who desired to
make him the scapegoat for the non-success of the French East
India Company. He was tried for his failure, and beheaded
in 1766. Twelve years after his death his sentence was
formally reversed.

Thus had the French East India Company, within a few years
destroyed the only three eminent men who had ever been placed at
the head o( their affairs in India — Labourdonnais, Dupleii and
Lally. It did not long survive this last display of its imbecility and
ignoranne. — Miu, (" History of British India.")

Haidar All. The success of the English against Lally

resulted in the acquisition of great prestige and considerable

territory. Further, their alliance was now eagerly sought by

the native princes. An agreement had been made with Nizam

All of Haiderabad to oppose Haidar All, a

«? l^nl^ soldier of fortune who had risen to tiie rank
War, 1780.

of Sultan of Mysore — the price to be paid for
English aid being the cession of the tract of territory, known
as the Northern Sirkars. Out of this sprang the first of our
wars with Mysore, which ended ingloriously enough, in 1769,
by treaty, on the basis of a mutual restoration of conquests and
a defensive alliance. An invasion of the Marathas led Haidar to
appeal to the British, now his allies, for aid. Nothing could
have been more distasteful to the rulers of the Company. The
demand passed unheeded, and Haidar bitterly resented the
breach of faith. An opportunity for revenge occurred. In
1780, war again broke out between England and France.
Mysore was swarming with French adventurers and Haidar
gladly accepted their proffered assistance in drilling his troops.
In July the storm burst. With 90,000 men, largelj' officered
by Europeans, many of them adventurers of the most desperate
type, Haidar swept down upon the Karnatik, devastating a
huge area round Madras. The British forces available, could
offer no effective resistance and had, perforce, to retreat before

BRITISU RULE IN' INDIA. 75

the formidable foe. Arcot was cai)turcd and the remaining
strongholds invested ; a French fleet with re-inforcements waa
daily expected, and the English power in the Karnatik seemed
to totter. The situation was saved by the energy of the
governor-general, Warren Hastings, and the brilliant military
ability of the veteran Sir Eyre Coote. An army of sepoys waa
raised and with these, together with a few Europeans, Coote
encountered Haidar's huge army, and defeated it in the great
battles of Porto Novo, Pollilore, Sholingur and Arni. In the
following year Haidar died, and Tipii, his son and successor
opened negotiations for peace, which were completed in 1784.

The Government and the Company. — The continual warfare
had so reduced the income of the Company that, in 1772, it
found itself unable to pay its dividend and appealed to the
Government for assistance. A committee was appointed to
enquire into the matter, and its report showed the Company to
be on the verge of bankruptcy. Moreover, such a record of
maladministration, cruelty, oppression and fraud wag brought
to light as made England ring with indignation.

The req aired aid was granted but only on certain conditions,
embodied m the Regulating Act of 1773, which placed the
Company's affairs more directly under control of the Crown.
The administration was to be in the hands of a Governor-
General aided by a council of five, all of whom were, in the
first place, to be appointed by the Cro'vn. The first of the
Govornor-Generals thus appointed was Warren Hastings.

Warren Hastings had entered the East India Company's
service as a clerk in 1750. He was one of the prisoners
captured by Siraj-ud-Daula at Calcutta, but escaped, fled to Olive,
and carried a musket at Plassey as a volunteer in his ranks.
CUve, quick to discern merit, appointed him British resident
at the court of Mir Jafar. In 1761, he was made a member
of the Council, and three years later retired to England wiUi

7fi RRITISn DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

a Luoderate competeuee. The loss of this sent hiiii as a
suppliant to his old directors, who willingly re-engaged him
in their service and sent him back to India, in 1769, as a
member of the Council at Madras. In 1772, he was appointed
Governor of Bengal, and, with the passing of the Regulating
Act, took his place in 1773, as the first Governor-General of
India.

He set himself the task of consoUdating the Company's
authority, and, what was of no less importance at this critical
stage of its history, of increasing its revenue. Had the latter
decreased at this juncture, the British power in India must have
fallen. Some of the measures he adopted, however, aroused
great indignation. Certain of them admit of no palliation, and
for these he was, in after years, brought to trial before the
House of Commons.

Among the chief of the crimes laid to Hastings' charge
were his extortions from Chait Singh, Raja of Benares, from
whom he demanded subsidy after subsidy, until the prince was
compelled to refuse further supplies. His refusal was treated
as a crime and punished by the confiscation of the whole of
his possessions. The affair ended in a dangerous revolt,
which, however, Hastings subdued. The Raja fled, his
treasury was looted, and his dominions added to the Company's
territory. But the money found in the treasury of Chait
Singh was appropriated by the victorious troops, to whom, aa
prize money, it legitimately fell. Hastings' plight was as bad
as ever. It became necessary to find some other means of
raising the funds, now more necessary than ever, for the
maintenance of the British rule in India against the attacks
of Haidar Alt and the French in the Karnatik. Further
victims were found in the persons of the Begams of Oudh.
The late Nawab had called in the aid of the British troops
against the Rohilla Afghans. Part of the subsidy agreed upon
for this had not been paid. But the Nawab was dead and the

BGITISU RULE IN INDIA. 77

bulk of hid property was in the hauds of the Begams — bin
mother and his wife. The present Nawab had exhausted his
resources iu vicious living, and the Bengal Council had ha']
to mtcrfere to prevent his exacting money from the Begams.
Hastings now proposed that he should demand from them the
surrender of their treasures. They refused and were imprisoned,
and some of their servants were tortured into compliance.

Much of the difficulty experienced by Hastings in his
dealings with the natives firose from the opposition he met
with from the members of the Council, notably Sir Philip
Francis- — the reputed author of "The Letters of Junius" —
with whom he fought a duel, the result being that Francis
was so severely wounded as to be oblig-^d to return to England.
Hastings himself returned in 178.;, to meet with an enthusi-
astic reception. But the abuses of his administration had so
impressed certain members of the Commons, that they resolved
upon his impeachment. The trial that
Warren HasUngs. ^oUowed, and which lasted for seven years,
is one of the most famous in our history'.
It resulted in his practical acquittal. The House, generously,
refused to visit with its censure one who had wrought so
much for the British name in India. The immense cost of a
trial extending over a period of seven years, however, com-
pletely exhausted his resources and he was, for the remainder
of his life, dependent upon the bounty of his former masters
— the Company — a bounty which, to their credit, was never
denied.

Apart from his having saved the country from the French
and from the Inroads of Haidar All, Hastings' great claim to
fame rests on his administrative work. He had reorganised
the Company's service, reformed the method of collecting the
revenue, established courts of justice, and created some
semblance of a police. History, however, sometimes forgets
these admirable achievements and remembers only his bold

78 BRITISH DOJIINIOXS BEYOND THE SEAS.

and aggressive policy for the advancement of the Company 'b
power and the crimes to which it led.

The rule of his successor, Lord Cornwallis, was chiefly
remarkable for its iiscal reforms, and the permanent fixing
of the Bengal land rents. It was the governorship of
his successor — Lord Mornington, better known as the
Marquis of Wellesley — that marks the real commencement
of British empire in India. Two principles dominated
his pohcy; the first to crush for ever the French hopes
of an Indian Empire, and the second to make the British
power paramount throughout the peninsula, allowing the
native princes to retain the Insignia of royalty only on
condition of acknowledging their political dependence upon
Britain. Hitherto, the struggles which had taken place in
India had been for the purpose of defending the Company's
trade or possessions. These still continued in the southern
portion of the peninsula as the Mysore Wars. Now, however,
in addition to them there began a new series of wars of
acquisition, waged chiefly against the warlike peoples of
Northern and North-western India.

The Mysore Wars.— The peace made by Tipu Sultan, son of
Haidar Ali, was not of long duration. The imagination of
Napoleon had been fired by dreams of an Indian empire, and
French emissaries swarmed throughout India to prepare for
the mighty mvasion which was to be led by the Emperor in
person. Tipii, in particular allowed himself to become the
creature of the French, and even went so far as to plant a " tree
of liberty " in his dominions, luad to enrol himself in a repubU-
can club as Citizen Tipu. But Bonaparte got no further than
Egypt. The threatened invasion did not take place, and the
result was the mvasion of Mysore by a British force, organised
by Lord Wellesley in person and led by General Harris. -The
Sultan's forces, after the feeblest resistance in the field, were

BRITISH UULF, IN INDIA. 79

cooped up in Seringapatain, the town was brilliantly atornied
and Tipii died like the son of his father, fighting valiantly in
the breach. His dominions were parted ; the old state of
Mysore was restored to its ancient R4jas from whom it had been
reft by Haidar All, and the remainder apportioned among the
British, the Nizam and the Marathas, while the dependency of
the Karnatik, together with the province of Tanjore was added
to the British dominions, forming, with Madras, the Presidency
of Madras, much as it exists to-day.

The Maratha Wars. — By this time, the great Marathd con-
federation had begmi to break up, as a result of the contests
between its leaders for supremacy. The nominal head — the
PeshwA was, in 1802, defeated by Hollcar and forced to flee for
shelter to the British territories. Whilst there, he was induced
to sign the treaty of Bassein, acknowledging British supremac;^
and granting a yearly subsidy, secured on the rents of certain
districts, for the purpose of maintaining those forces necessary
for hie protection. The other leaders of the Marathas refused
to ratify this agreement, and during the Governor-generalship
of the Marquis of Wellesley,the second Maratha war broke
out. The campaigns which followed are perhaps, the most
glorious in the history of British India. The Marathas were
led by Sindhia and the Raja of Nagpur and the English forces
by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards Duke of "Wellington) and
General Lake. Wellesley, in the Dekhan, won the famous
victories of Assaye and Argaum and captured Ahmadnagar.
Lake's campaign was equally brilliant. He defeated the
Marathas in the pitched battles of Lasawri and Aligarh, and
captured Delhi and Agra. Before the end of 1803, both
Sindhia and the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur sued for peace.
Sindhia resigned all the territory north of the Jumna, and the
Raja ceded Orissa to the English and Berar to their ally the
Nizam. Only the free-bootcr Holkar remained in the field,
maintaining a guerilla warfare, and every now and then, raiding

80 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

Malwa and Rajputana, and the remaining j'ears of Lord
Wellesley's administration were occupied with fruitless
attempts to crush him. Still the Governor, during the six
years of his rule had carried out aluiost all that he had set
himself to do. The North-West Provinces were united under
British authority, the Madras Presidency in the south-east
existed in almost the same form as it does to-day, and the
Peshwa — the head of the Maratha confederation in the
south-west — was compelled to acknowledge British authority.
Lord Moira, better known as the Marquis of Hastings,
— the title he received as the reward of his labours —
completed Lord Wellesley's conquests in Central India.
Under his administration, too, the Bombay Presidency was
formed. Two great wars were included in the nine years of his
rule, one against the Gurkhas of Nepal, and the other the last
contest with the Marathas. The results were, the freeing of
the inhabitants of the Ganges valley from the raids which
brought the hardy Qiirkhas from their Himalayan fastnesses in
a resistless flood upon the fruitful plains, and the annexation of
a vast tract of country to the Bombay Presidency, together
with the formation of the nucleus of the present Central
Provinces. The work of conquest was continued by Lord
Amherst. The first Burmese War laid the foundation of
British Burmah by the annexation of the provinces of Assam,
Aracan andTenasserim, already in the miUtary occupation of the
British, while a further expedition into Central India succeeded
in storming Bhartpur — a stronghold hitherto fotidly deemed
impregnable — a notion which had become a standing menace
to British power in Central India.

The Marathas. — The Mirithi powers at this time were Ave in
number. The Peshw4 of Poona was the head of the confederacy ; its
other members were the G4ikw4r of Baroda, the Bhonsli R4j4 of
Nagpur and the two Chiefs Sindhia of Gwalior and Hoikar of Indore
and Malwd, who continually struggled for pre-eminence in Central
India.

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 81

The seven years' government of Lord William Bentinck
added nothing to the territorial extent of British India, but
will ever form an epoch of administrative reform. " He
abolished," says Macaulay," cruel rites, he effaced hum.iliating
distinctions, he gave liberty to the expression
Lord William of popular opinion ; his constant study was
Bentinck, 1828-35. ^^ elevate the moral and intellectual
character of the natives committed to his charge." Among
the most memorable of his acts are the abolition of aati or
widow-burning and the suppression of the Thugs, whose
barbarous practice it was to lie in wait for the purpose of
strangling unwary wayfarers. In 1833, the charter of the
Company was revised, its monopoly of trade being withdrawn
and itself reduced to little more than a department of the
British Government. The year 1843 saw the addition of
Sindh to the British dominions. The coiiquest was carried out
by Sir Charles Napier — whose victory of Miani, in which 3,000
British troops defeated 20,000 Baluchis is one of the most
brilliant feats of Indian history. There now remained but one of
the great independent races of India, the Sikhs, a great religious
sect bound together by the rules of a stern military discipline.
Bunjit Singh, Maharaja of the Punjab, and founder of the Sikh
power in India, had organised an army, disciplined by
Europeans, and filled with religious fervour to an extent
unparalleled in history, save by Cromwell's Ironsides. He, him-
self, wisely refrained from coming into conflict with the British
power, but after his death no successor was found to take his
place. The wliole power vested in the army and its chiefs
burned to measure its strength with that of the British troops.
Thus, in 18-45, the whole force of some 60,000 men crossed the
Sutlej into British territory. A British army under Sir Hugh
Gough marched at once to the front, and within thre« weeks,
no fewer than four pitched battles were fought at Mudki,
Ferozshah, Aliw41, and SobrAon. In the Inst of these the Sikhs

82 BRITISH DOMINIONS EEYuND THE SEAS.

were hopelessly defeated, driven back over the Sutlej, aud
Lahore captured. By the terms of the peace which followed,
the doab between the Sutlej and the R4vi was ceded to
Britain, and a British resident, Sir Henry Lawrence, appointed
to the court of Lahore. Sir Henry Hardinge, the then governor,
returned to England with the title of Lord Hardinge in 1848.

He was succeeded by one of the ablest of the Indian

Governors-General — Lord Dalhousie. His maxim " that the

rulers of a country only exist for the good of those they

rule " has ever since his time prevailed

'''"'.^o,«*'!l^r*°' in Indian politics. . In spite of his desire

1848 — 18o6.

for peace, however, circumstances forced
him into two disastrous wars. An outbreak of fanaticism
at Multan led to the Second Sikh War and the famous TchaUa
army, the "Ironsides" of the Sikhs, was called into the field
with, at the first, disastrous results to the British arms. In
the terrible Battle of Chilianwalla the British lost 2,400 men,
and, although patriotic historians choose to term it a dra^Ti
fight, there is no doubt that British power here received one of
its severest checks. Eeinforcements were sent from England but
before they arrived. Lord Gough, in the crowning victory of
Guzerat, had recovered the advantage be had lost, restored the
prestige of the British arms, and all but annihilated the Sikh
army. As a result a large portion of the Punjab came under
British rule, together with Nagpur, Oudh and several minor
states. In 1852, the Second Burmese War broke out, and
the whole valley of the Irriwadi, from Eangoon to Prome, was
annexed to British India under the name of Pegu.

The Indian Mutiny, 1857. — Lord DaUiousie was followed
by Lord Canning. The fabric of the British empire in India
was now completely mapped out. But the pohcy of annexation
which had been laid down by the Company, and conscientiously
carried out by Lord Dalhousie in all cases where the natives

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. y3

r'ere ground down by the tjnranny of their rulers, or the
British rule promised to ameliorate their lot, had become
distasteful to a large section of the population. Together with
the introduction of scientific inventions, the steam engine
and the telegraph, it was believed to be indicative of a
determination to destroy the old civilisation of the Hindus
with the view of replacing it by that of Europe.

The native princes, the oppressors of India in the p;\st,
whose thrones and powers had fallen before the determination
of the English rulers to secure the welfare of the people under
their rule, were naturally the first to foment, the spirit of
disaffection which was abroad. The native troops, too, which,
trained and led by Europeans had been the instruments of
the change, were induced to believe that all India had been
conquered by their prowess and that the fear of them alone
maintained it in peace. Now a rumour spread abroad of an
insidious scheme afoot, to complete the subjugation of the
native races by destroying caste. The army had been
supplied with a new rifle, the cartridges of which, before
being placed in the rifle, required to be bitten in order to
loosen the bullet. It was spread abroad that these cartridges
had been greased with the fat of pigs — an animal unclean
ilike to Hindu and Mohammedan, and to taste whose flesh
meant to tlie former the loss of caste. The discipline
of the sepoy army rapidly declined under this belief untU
only its semblance remained. Officers were openly insulted
by their men, fires broke out nightly in the native cantonments
and finally, on the afternoon of Sunday, May 10th, 1855, the
sepoys at Meerut broke into open revolt, murdered their
officers, massacred, in their fury, every European whom they
could find, and rushed in a disorderly rout to the neighbouring
city of Delhi, there to stir their fellows into followmg their
axample.

84 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

The English army had been weakened by the appointment
of many of its officers to civil posts of political importance,
and those who remained seem to have acted with irrational
irresolution. A strong will aaid a firm hand, at the commence-
ment of the outbreak, might have saved India the horrors
that followed. The European garrison at Meerut was a
strong one and, efficiently led, might not unreasonably have
expected to overcome the mutineers before they reached
Delhi. The news was sent to that city by telegraph, but that
was all. Next day the troops of Delhi mutinied, the Europeans
blew up the magazine and fled as best they could, and the
revolt spread like wildfire throughout the North-West Provinces
and Oudh, and so on into Lower Bengal. Europeans every-
where suffered the cruellest and most shameful of deaths, or
were suffered to live only to undergo a fate to which death
itself would have been preferable. The Punjab alone was quiet.
There the plans of the sepoys were anticipated by stern measures
of prevention. It was fortunate, too, that the Sikhs never
wavered in their allegiance to Britain. Indeed, it was largely
through the invaluable aid afforded by these warhke tribes that
the revolt was so effectually checked. In addition to Delhi, the
chief centres of the revolt were the cities of Ca\vnpore and
Lucknow. The former was one of the greatest of the native
garrisons of British India, the latter had been strongly fortified
by Sir Henry Lawrence, the governor of Oudh, who had
foreseen the coming storm. Near Cawnpore, too, was the
palace of Dandhu Panth, better known to infamy as Nana
Sahib, the adopted son and heir of Baji Rao, the last of the
Peshwas — the titular heads of the great Marathd confederation.
No one was more profuse in his expressions of loyalty to the
British, and few were equally energetic m fomenting the
revolt in private.

On June 6th he threw off the mask, put himself at the head
of the rebels, and proclaimed himself Peshwa, of the Marathaa,

J

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 85

signalising his new dignity by marching OQ Cawnpore. Ths
garrison of the ill-fated city, comprising far more women
and children than fighting men, withstood him during a siege
of nineteen days and then, confiding in his promise of a safe
conduct down the Ganges to AIlah4b4d, yielded. No sooner
were they embarked, than a murderous fire was opened from
masked batteries along the banks upon the defenceless
occupants of the boats. A single boat only escaped. The
remainder were brought to shore after the fusilade and every
man massacred save four, who, escaping, swam the river under
a hail of shot and sought the protection of a friendly r6,j4.
The women and children — a hundred and twenty-five — were
taken back to their prison, there to wait the captor's pleasure.

Meanwhile Havelock, with a little army of relief, was
pressing forward under the burning sun with a heroic
fortitude rarely equalled in the annals of war. On the 15th
of July he was at hand. At the first sound of his guns
the captives were massacred in cold blood, women and children
together, by the order of Nana S4hib. When Havelock's
troops, storming through the city, entered the prison house,
its courtyard swam with blood, while from the well in its
centre the horror-stricken soldiers drew some two hundred
bodies all warm, some still quivering with departing life. Few
sights recorded in the history of the world can have equalled in
horror the well of Cawnpore. Strong men sat and wept Uke
Httle children, then, conquering their grief, swore a terrible
vengeance upon the authors of so terrible an outrage.

The Relief of Lucknow. — Lucknow had been fortified in
readiness for the outbreak, and when it occurred, as it
did on May 30th, it found the Europeans prepared, and
the 750 British troops in the city, after a gallant stand
succeeded in driving the rebels towards Sitapur. The city
thus remained in the hands of the British — the onl.v

86 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

post in Oudh. The fall of Cawnpore was followed by
a determined attack upon Lucknow. The garrison made a
gallant resistance. Thrice the mutineers attempted to carry
the place by assault, but each time they were repulsed with
heavy loss. Famine, sickness and the incessant cannonade
maintained by the rebels were, however, doing their work, and
the defenders looked anxiously for relief. Failing that, death
even was preferable to falling into the hands of the mutineers.
On September 22nd, Havelock, who with his relieving
colunm had performed prodigies of endurance, stormed the
Alambagh -with his tired troops and swept through streets lined
by the enemy, who kept up a constant fire from windows,
loopholes and house tops, to the Residency, where the little
garrison had finally entrenched themselves. Even now, the
forces under the command of the European generals were not
sufficient to attack the investing army, with any reasonable
prospect of success. All that could be done was to fortify a
larger area of the town imtil a stronger force could be brought
to the relief. The siege continued till October lOLh, when Sir
Colin Campbell reached the Alambagh, captured it, forded the
canal and attacked the Sikandrabagh, the chief of the rebels'
strongholds, and carried it by assault. Havelock with his
little garrison marched out from the Residency to meet him.
The force was still insufficient to risk a pitched battle and it
was determined to return to Cawnpore and abandon, to the
rebels, the Residency for which they had fought so long, and
whose possession had cost them so dear. Before the departure.
Sir Henry Havelock died from dysentery, and was buried in the
Alambagh on the scene of his triumphs. Sir James Outram
with 3,500 men held the Alambagh against all the attempts of
the mutineers to recapture it, until the army returned, in the
following year, to finally reoccupy the city.

The Alambagh was a walled gwden on the Cawnpore road, which
was strongly forlified by the rebei&, who made U one ol the chief oi
their strouKholds.

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.

87

80 U"l C tfO'ttAwO*

fUifih, ti!ill»n<S I Ct

88 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

The Siege of Delhi. — The siege of Delhi was hardly a
siege in the ordinary sense of the word. Eight thousand
British troops camped on a ridge outside the city could
hardly be said to besiege a rebel force of thirty thousand
men within. About the middle of August there came
a considerable re-inforcement from the Punjab, and a
month later, on September 14th, it was determined to
attempt to capture the city by assault. The attack was
successful, the walls stormed, and the gates blown down. Six
days' street to street and house to house fighting placed Delhi
once more in English hands, but at a cost of 66 ofl&cers and
1,100 men. With the capture of Delhi, the interest of the
mutiny largely died out. Fighting went on for some eighteen
months longer in various parts of the country, chiefly in Oudh,
which indeed was the only part of India where the rising assumed
the character of a general revolt rather than a mutiny among
the troops. Here the campaign was carried on by Sir Colin
Campbell, while Sir Hugh Rose conducted that in Central India.

The Mutiny sealed the fate of the East India Company,
which had ruled the affairs of the coimtry during a career of two
and a half centuries. The " Act for the better government of
India," which passed the British Parhament in 1858, after
acrimonious discussion in the House, and strong opposition
from the directors, enacted that India should be governed by
and in the name of the Queen of England, that the Governor-
general should henceforth bear the title of Viceroy, and that the
troops of the Company should be amalgamated with those of
the royal service, and the Indian navy be abolished.

The first of the Viceroys was Lord Canning, to whose lot it
fell both to suppress the mutiny and to inaugurate the series
of peaceful reforms, which have done so much to secure the
peace and prosperity of India during the period in which it has
been under the control of the British Crown.

Peace was proclaimed throughout India on July 8th, 1859.

BRITISH KULB IN INDIA. 89

SECTION II.— SINCE 1858.

After the Mutiny. — Canning had been made Governor
General in 1856. After the abolition of the Company, the
Governor General received the title of Viceroy. To Canning,
as has been said, it fell to quiet India after the Mutiny. He
did so with such mildness and forbearance that his critics gave
him the name of " Clemency Canning."

At a grand darhar held at Allahabad, 1st November, 1858,
a royal proclamation was issued that the Queen had assumed
the government of India ; and an amnesty was granted to all
except those who had actually murdered British subjects
during the Mutiny.

The Mutiny raised the Indian debt by 4e40,000,000, to deal
with which deficit and to reorganise the Indian finances
generally, Mr. James Wilson was appointed Finance Minister,
and a paper currency was established. In these transformation
scenes hitches were bound to occur. There was something
hke a mutiny amongst the British officers on account of their
transfer from the service of the Company to that of the Crown
without any bounty being given. But the rub was smoothed
over. In 1861, the order of the " Star of India " was insti-
tuted. The Penal Code and the Courts of Justice were
reformed, and many progressive steps taken, especially in
the construction of railways, canals, macadamised roads, and
lines of telegraph.

In 1860-1861, there was a terrible famine in the Punjab,
owing to the failure of the monsoons, and the mortality
amounted to about 500,000 persons. The London Mansion
House subscription totalled about jE115,000.

Under Lord Elgin (1862-1863Uhe "Wahabees" at Patna
gave trouble, and had to be repressed. The "Wahabees were

90 BRITISH DOMINIONS BKYOND THE SEAS.

followers of Abd-el-Wahab ("Servant of the Boiintif ul ") , a
Muslim reformer, born in Arabia, 1691 (died 1787), who
maintained that the Tm'ks and other Mohammedans had
departed widely from the teaching of the Koran.

The cotton industry was being vigorously pushed in India
at this time, and the first Indian Agricultural Exhibition was
held in Calcutta in 1863.

Under Sir John Lawrence (1864-1868) there were several
matters deserving notice. Frontier trouble with the
Bhootanese resulted in a little war, in which the latter were
defeated at Dhalimcote and at Diwangiri. Peace was made,
November, 1865. There was another severe famine in Orissa,
in which a million- and- a- half persons are said to have perished.
After this terrible disaster, irrigation works were undertaken
on a larger scale than ever in the Punjab, the North West
Provinces, Bengal, Central Provinces, Bombaj', Madras, and
Mysore, where the chief rivers were linked together by canals,
enabling vast tracts of country to be irrigated, which
considerably reduced the danger, — though that danger has
even yet by no means passed. These famines, in tlie expenses
they entailed, greatly deranged, from time to time, the financial
resources of India, and made India, on several occasions, a
source of great anxiety to the mother country. In 1867, there
was a deficit of nearly £2,.500,000.

Excited bj- the Patna rising, the Bazotis, a tribe of
fanatical Mohammedans on the North "West Frontier, flew to
arms, and committed many outrages on British subjects, for
which they were punished by General WiLle.

A new land settlement in Oudh and the Punjab, begun by
Canning, was finished by Lawrence. The quieting and re-
organisation of the North West Provinces, moreover, under-
taken by Sir Richard Temple, and prosecuted by him with the
most praiseworthy energy, must not be ignored. This process
meant a vast amount of varied labour, and included laud

BRITISH UULE IN INDIA. 91

settlements, the organisation of native police and magistrates,
the reformation or creation of vernacular schools, dispensaries,
vaccination and sanitary measures, the erection of churches,
barracks, court houses, the formation of roads, the building of
travellers' rests, etc.

Lord Mayo (1869-1872). The appointment of Lord Mayo,
severely criticised at first, turned out a great success, and his
period of office was one of much moral and material progress
for India. To make up for a considerable deficit in the
revenue, an income tax was imposed (in the face, however, of
great opposition), and was allowed to remain in force until
1873. The Calcutta and Bombay Railway was completed in
1870, and in the following year a civil engineering college for
India was opened at Cooper's Hill on the banks of the
Thames.

Expeditions against the refractory Looshais in 1871, and
against the Kukas in 1872, were but the prelude to more
serious trouble with the Afghans. Our relations with those
people were always of a difficult and delicate character, owing
to the fact that in a sense the Amir held the key to the
situation. With the great Russian power encroaching on one
frontier, and India on the other, he could side with either as
it suited his purpose. England and Russia were both jealous
and suspicious of each other, and the Amir knew it, and
acted accordingly. The problem was how to treat Afghanistan.
We might conquer the country no doubt; but that mi^'ht
possibly involve us in a war with Russia, and in any case it
would be very difficult to hold Afghanistan, as the natives are
intensely hostile to foreign, especially to Christian, rule. Yet
it would hardly be politic to allow Russia, who had for many
years been creeping on through Central Asia and swallowing
up territory in all directions, a free hand in Afghan affairs.
It seemed advisable to get the Amir on our side by making a
treaty with him, granting him a pension, and in some way estab-

92 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

lishing a " scientific frontier" on this side. All these difficulties
and problems had been fully experienced in the last Afghan
War of 1842, when Dost Mohammed had been for a time
deposed. Since the death of Dost (in 1865) his three sons had
been fighting for the mastery, and their wars had gone on for
five years. Lord Lawrence had pursued towards these
brothers a policy of strict non-intervention, or as some called
it, "masterly inactivity." When at length, however, the third
son, Shere Ali, had succeeded in making himself supreme,
the Indian Viceroy determined to recognise the de facto ruler.
Lord Mayo therefore held a darhar at Ambala (Umballa) with
this object, and invited Shere Ali to be present. Shere came
with apparently ambitious expectations of obtaining a large
and settled annuity, and recognition of the sovereignty as
entailed on his j^ounger son to the exclusion of the elder. In
these expectations he was not altogether gratified; but he
did receive an annuity and valuable presents, and returned, on
the whole, as a friendly and well-disposed neighbour. (It was
the reversal of this wise policy afterwards by Lord Lytton,
under Lord Beaconsfield's ministry, that brought about the
terrible Cavagnari tragedy of 1878).

Lord Mayo was a most assiduous worker, and took a
great personal interest in his duties. In 1872, he travelled
roimd his Viceroyalty, and visited Further India. On
returning from Eangoon, he took the penal settlement of
the Andaman Islands on his way. Landing at Port Blair, he
went round the island, not knowing that he was being stalked
by a Malay convict whose resentment burned for revenge.
The miscreant succeeded in assassinating the Viceroy with a
dagger before the latter could regain his vessel. This tragedy
aroused the deepest sorrow and indignation at home, and all
parties now joined in recognising Lord Mayo's brilliant and
statesmanlike qualities. His remains were taken to Ireland,
and accorded a public funeral in Dublin, where the many

BUITIrill UULK IN IN'DfA. 98

thousands of citizens gathered to honoui- the memory of tlieir
couutrviuan.

Lord Northbrook (1872-1876) was destined to see yet another
famine, this time in Bengal, and affecting fourteen milUons
of persons. The Government rehef works, organised by
Sir Richard Temple, did much to save the situation (1874).
The Prince of Wales's tour through the dependency, in
1875-76, tended to put the people in a good humour, and
it forms a kind of landmark in Indian history for the loyalty
it awakened. Lord Northbrook's financial ability, and his
success in coping with the famine must always be remembered
to his credit. Municipal institutions were developed consider-
ably under his regime, while the staving off of several frontier
wars must also be placed to his honour. In 1875, Mulkar Rao,
the Gaikwar of Baroda, was tried and deposed for misgovern-
ment, disloyalty, and attempting to poison Colonel Phayre.

Lord Lytton (1876-1880). As the result or sequel of the
Prince of Wales's visit, Queen Victoria, at a great darbar
at Delhi (January 1st, 1877), was proclaimed Empress of
India — after previous proclamation in London. A long
drou^'ht, from 1876 to 1878, brought about perhaps the
severest famine that ever visited India. It was worst in
the Dekhan and Southern India, where it carried off some
five and a quarter millions of people, and cost the Government
^11,000,000.

Restrictions placed on the native press in 1378, and further
restrictions on the privileges of war correspondents (1879),
caused some loud and hostile criticism. But the chief
feature of Lyttou's rule was the Afghan imbroglio. Sir
Bartle Frere, Sir Henry Rawlinson, and others were strongly
of opinion that there should be a British resident in
Afghanistan, to "tunc" the foreign policy of the country
and form a counterpoise to Russian intrigues. Others,
however, including Lord Northbrook, knowing how bitterly

94 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

the British "Giaour" was hated by the Muslim Afghan,
and how suspicious tlie latter was of Indian designs on his
independence, as strongly discountenanced the "residential"
pohcy. Lord Northbrook, rather than pursue such a policy,
resigned, but the Home Government found in Lord Lyttou
a viceroy who would obey their behests.

Negotiations were opened with Shere Ali, but that
potentate dechned all overtures towards receiving a minister,
and, on the contrary, welcomed a Russian agent at Kabul.
This behaviour was treated as an act of war, and a British
force was immediately ordered into Afghanistan. Shere Ali
fled into Turkestan, and died there. A treaty was then made
with his son, Yakub Khan, at Gandamak, by which the
British frontier was to be advanced somewhat, and a British
officer to be received at Kabul. Yakub was not unfriendly
to the English, but he was a mere puppet in the hands
of the army, and against the strongly expressed national
sentiment he was powerless. Sir Louis Cavagnari, with an
escort, repaired to Kabul, but within a few months he and
his whole escort were murdered by the indignant Afghans.
The war was at once renewed. Yakub abdicated, or was
deposed, and another Afghan chief proclaimed, while the
country was put under m irtial law. Ayub Khan, Yakub's
brother, was decidedly anti-English, and as he was moving
about in the neighbourhood of Kandahar, it was deemed
prudent to check his advance. In this attempt, however,
another disaster befel the English, for General Burrows, with
an auxiliary force of about 2,500 English soldiers, was
defeated at Maiwand (near Kandahar) by Ayub, who captured
seven British guns (July, 1880). General Roberts then
marched south from Kabul, and defeated Ayub (September
1st, 1880) and relieved Kandahar. Abdurrahman, the eldest
male of the family, was then proclaimed Amir, and the
"residential" policy finally abandoned.

nurnsu rule im india. 95

Under Lord Ripon. who followed Lytton, (1880-1884) a
period of peace aad local development ensued, and an Indian
contingent went to help the British in the war against Arabi
Pasha in Egypt (1832-1884).

borne excitement was caused by the trial of Mr. BanLirji,
Editor of the Bengali, who was sentenced to imprisonment for
libelling Judge Norris, and monster meetings of protest were
held by the Hindus.

Under Lord Dufferin (1884-1883) occurred the third Burmese
war, in which Upper Burma and the Shan States were annexed.
In 1888, outrages upon British troops by the Akozai tribes led
to the Black Mountain expedition under General McQueen, which
ended in smart punishment of and submission by the Akozais.
Lady Dufferin interested herself much in Indian affairs, and
raised a large fund to equip female medical practitioners.

Under Lord Lansdowne (1838-1893), the Fortress of Quetta
was completed, and the frontiers of the Empire further
strengthened and made " scientific." A treaty with China
provided for more extended British control over Sikkim. The
Hunga and Nagar tribes, tributaries of Kashmir, who objected
to British road-making in their vicinity, were reduced to more
immediate British jurisdiction. Trouble fi'om the Chins and
Lushais (Burmese frontier tribes), necessitated a punitive
expedition, which, under General Symons, however, not only
inflicted punishment on those exceedingly troublesome
neighbours, but also opened up and made comparatively secure
new commercial highwaj'S between India and Burma. The
currency, meanwhile, was reformed, and independent mints
were closed to the free coinage of silver. The legislative
councils were opened to a larger popular element, and,
generally speaking, reform proceeded along democratic lines.

Under Lord Elgin (1894-1898) there were many local troubles
caused by famine, plague, earthquake, and frontier fighting.
An outbreak among the Chitral tribes, in the extreme northern

96 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

highlands between Kashmir and Afghanistan, necessitated the
sending of a large military force to put an end to outrages and
relieve the British garrison there (1895). In 1896-1897, the
outbreaks were renewed, and, extending along the great stretch
of frontier as far as Baluchistan, included Pathans, Afridis,
Orakzais, and many other tribes, together with the followers of
the " Mad Mullah." Sixty thousand troops had to be employed
in these hostilities, and the losses amounted to nearly 1,900
men and officers, before quiet was restored. The Afridis were
not subdued till 1893. Further boundary definitions were
arrived at, e.g., between Asiatic Russia and the Pamirs, and
with French Territory on the Mekong river. Legislative
councils were created for the Punjab and for Burma, and the
laws against sedition were modified. Meanwhile, a terrible
plague and famine were raging in Bombay, Sindh, Oudh,
Punjab, etc. (1896-1897), while an earthquake in Assam caused
great disaster.

Lord Gurzon's term of office (1899-1905) was a stirring and
eventful one, and several new departures took place. The
previous consolidations of the Empire seemed to be bearing
fruit in the despatch of Indian troops to help the mother
country in several foreign wars and complications, viz., in
South Africa (1899), in China (1900), and in Somalilaud
(1903-1904). The famine fiend, however, was no means cast
out, and it is painful to have to record another terrible famine
— one of the worst — in the Punjab, the North West Provinces,
Bombay and elsewhere, affecting 450,000 square miles and
about 62,000,000 people, and involving a loss of =£50,000,000.
A kindly element in this calamity was the help that came
from Germany and elsewhere abroad.

There was general grief and mourning in India for the
death of Queen Victoria (January, 1901), and Lord Curzon's
proposal for a memorial to her memory in that country was
responded to with large and generous donations.

BRITISH BULK IN INDIA. 97

A great many reforms — educational, agricultural, financial
and commercial — were initiated, and developments encouraged,
under Lord Curzon. He also undertook many tours and licid
several darbars in different places. A new province— the
North West Frontier — was created. The Aden and the Perso-
Afghan frontiers were more accurately defined, while from
amongst the native princes and nobles a corps of Iui[)eriul
Cadets was formed. From the Nizam a perpetual lease of
Berar was secured by a treaty by which the Nizam, in
consideration of receiving thirty lakhs of rupees yearly, gave
up all his territorial claims to that country-.

In 1902, many native princes and troops attended King
Edward's coronation in London, and on the 1st of January,
1903, the same ceremony was celebrated at a great darhar at
Delhi, which ancient city the Viceroy entered in state,
accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and
fifty native princes. Many honours were distributed on the
occasion, and 16,000 prisoners were released.

In 1903-1904, a new epoch was made in the history of Tibet
by the expedition of Colonel Younghusband and General
Macdonald. Buddhism had been introduced into Tibet
in the seventh century, a.d. The Jesuits had visited
the country in the seventeenth century, but not until
recent years had there been any attempts to explore that
ancient, strange and very exclusive land. Russians and
Germans, as well as Englishmen, had endeavoured to traverse
and survey the country, but such attempts were jealously
opposed not only by the Tibetans, but by the Chinese, who
claimed a suzerainty over Tibet. For a long time, relations
between Great Britain and Tibet had been very unsatisfactory.
The government at Calcutta had been anxious to arrange
several outstanding frontier disputes, and to open up trade
and commerce with their northern neighbour. In 1886, British
troops had been obliged to drive Tibetans out of Sikkim,

98 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

with which a commercial treaty, initiated by Chinese
influence, was concluded. This compact, however, like all
others with Tibet, had been evaded or ignored. In 1890 and
1893, similar treaties had been made, and had had a similar fate.
As was stated in the House of Commons (April 13th, 1904) : —
"Treaties had been violated, representations disregarded,
letters from the Viceroy returned unopened, trade stopped,
pillars to mark boundaries overthrown. All this had gone on
for foui'teen yeairs ; it now must cease ; but we had no desire
to occupy Tibetan territory. Annexation would be a mis-
fortune to India."

At last reports of Muscovite intrigue were brought to
Calcutta, tending to show that Eussia was playing the same
game here as she had played in Afghanistan. With a
continual Russian advance in Central Asia, and a Russian
railway across Siberia from west to east, it seemed equally
important to make Tibet a "buffer" state; and Lord Curzon
resolved to send a peaceful mission to Tibet. This expedition,
under Colonel Younghusband, started, in 1903, to negotiate
with the Tibetan chiefs direct. The country is ruled by
Buddhist priests, or lamas, the chief of whom, the Dalai
Lama, is (like the whilom Mikados of Japan) both the
spiritual and temporal ruler of the country. The Tibetans
viewed the Indian expedition first with suspicion and alarm,
and then with hostility. There was no wish to violate the
"sacred capital" of Lhassa, but continual provocation and
hostility on the part of the Tibetans caused the expedition
to advance to Gyangtse, about 150 miles from Lhassa. In
April (1903), that town was occupied by the British troops,
and its fortress, which surrendered without resistance, was
dismantled. As the lamas still held aloof, playing a double
game, the expedition advanced to Lhassa. The British force
was attacked all along the line of march, and several villages
had to be captured and defeats inflicted upon the enemy,

nUITISII RULK IN IN UFA. 99

before General Macdonald could reach his ^'oal. On arriving
at Lhassa (August 3rd, 1904) the liritish leader found that
the Dalai Lama had fled, leaving, however, his seal to a
kind of Regent, with whom negotiations were carried on.
With this Regent a treaty was signed, by which the Tibetans
agreed to establish markets at Gyangtse and Garlok as well
as at Yatung, for British trade, and officials of both countries
were to be stationed at those places. Provision was also
made for the promotion anl protection of trade and traffic
along existing routes, and others that might be opened up.
The Tibetans, moreover, agreed to pay an indemnity of
7.000,000 rupees (.£500,000) ; and as security for this and the
other terms of the treaty, the British troops were to occupy
tlie Chumba Valley for three years. The forts between
Gyangtse and the Indian Frontier were to be demolished,
and the Tibetan authorities were not to alienate any portion
of their country to a foreign power without the consent of
Great Britain. (The indemnity was afterwards reduced to
i2166,000.)

The other events of Lord Curzon's rule included a temble
earthquake in north-western India (1905) involving immense
loss of life and property both to natives and Europeans in
Dharmsala, Lahore, Amritsar, Kangra, and other districts.
Fifteen thousand persons lost their lives, and Lady Curzon had
a narrow escape at Simla. The i)lague supervened in the
same year, and caused far greater mortality, 57,000 deaths
being reported in one week.

Bengal having become too unwieldy for single management,
it was resolved to divide it into two for administrative
purposes. This was accordingly done, the eastern portion of
Bengal being united to Assam ; but the change was not fully
effected until Lord Minto's recjime.

Important army reforms were meanwhile being carried out
in conjunction with Lord Kitchener, the Commander-in-Chief,

100 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

but diflferences between the two chiefs caused Lord Curzon to
resign (August, 1905).*

Lord Minto (1905- ) succeeded Lord Curzon. In 1905-
1906, the Prince and Princess of Wales made a tour through
India, but the ethical value of the tour was not greatly
apparent. The Hindu mind had been greatly stirred by the
partition of Bengal, and monster meetings were held, at which
resolutions to boycott British goods were passed. The unrest
extended to the Punjab, and, in 1907, it was found necessary
to pass an act against seditious gatherings. Lord Morley, in
his Budget speech of this year, foreshadowed important
reforms in the Indian administration, including the appoint-
ment of native members to his own council, the extension of
the native element in the vice-regal and provincial legislative
councils, and the formation of imperial and provincial advisory
councils of notables. Decentralisation was to be the key to
these changes, which were, therefore, thoroughly democratic in
their character. The Indian Councils Act of 1909 enlarges the
vice-regal and legislative councils, and extends the elective
element, and generally proceeds on democratic lines.

INDIAN UNREST.

The results of British rule in India have not, on the whole,
been very encouraging, at least not brilliantly satisfactory.
With droughts, pestilences and famines, of more or less regular
recurrence (five great famines occurred within 40 years) ; with
40,000,000 or 50,000,000 of people insufficiently fed in the
intervals ; with the military expenditure, and with it taxation,
steadily rising — and that without any internal wars in the
country itself — it is not to be wondered at that there has been

* Lord Kitchener demanded the abolition of the divided military control,
which made in time of war the military member of the council virtually
omnipotent in military matters, while Lord Curzon feared that the change
would result in a dangerous military dictatorship. The Home Government,
however, upheld Lord Kitchener.

lilirn>^ll HULK IN INDIA. 101

considerablo discontent amongst the natives. But other and
more important causes have combined to sharpen that
discontent. Some of those causes are political, some social,
and some religious, and in investigating these \vc can trace a
riMuarkable parallel between India and Ireland.

Religious Causes. — In both India and Ireland there are
two religious communions, each violently opposed to the other,
Hinduism and Islam (or Mohammedanism) in the former ;
and Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in the latter
country. In both countries the older creed has a decided
majority — Hinduism in India, and Boman Catholicism in
Ireland. In both countries the religious antagonism has led
to political ho>itility. In both countries the dominant creed
favours " Home Rule." The Hindus demand " India for the
Indians," as the Irish Roman Catholics demand " Ireland
for the Irish." In both countries the minority objects to
Home Rule, and for similar reasons. The Mohammedans
fear that the withdrawal of the English would leave them to
the mercy of the Hindus, to be oppressed, if not exterminated,
by a code of anti-Islam laws ; and the Irish Protestants fear
for their own future at the hands of the Nationalists under
Home Rule, and (as they complain) they are already being
systematically boycotted and tyrannised over by the County
and Borough Councils with every extension of local self-
government.

Industrial Causes. — The industrial classes of India used
to do very good hand-work, especially in weaving, dyeing,
metal and leather work, for which they had good markets,
and received good pay. But with the vast exten'^ion of steam
and machinery, the loom-owners of England have been
demanding more and more of the raw (i.e., cheap) material,
and British firms less and less of the manufactured (i.e.,
the well-paid) article.

102 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

"In the early days of the Company's rule, fabrics produced
by Indian weavers supplied the markets of Europe, and men
still living can remember the days when every village in the
weaving district had its looms, and millions of Indian weavers
were supported by that profitable industry. How this industry
was gradually strangled and destroyed, first by protective
duties imposed on Indian goods in England, and then by an
unequal competition; how Indian weavers, who were content
with threepence or fourpence a day, found themselves ruined
by the cheaper products of English looms ; and how the
weaver communities of India were compelled to abandon
their trade, and to depend on agriculture or petty trade, or
on humble and ill-paid appointments in public and private
offices — all this forms one of the saddest chapters in the
history of British India. What happened to the weavers
has also happened to the other industrial classes. The
production of the lac dyes has died out since the importa-
tion of anilme dyes; and Indian workers in metals and in
leather can scarcely hold their own against imported goods.
Millions of artisans have been ousted from their occupations,
and have taken to agriculture, and the pressure on the
resources of the soil has thus increased with the decadence
of our industries. We have ourselves seen, and all Indian
administrators who have spent years of their life in the old
weaving districts have seen, that the old villages of weavers
are often overgrown with jungle, temples constructed by those
classes are in decay, large irrigation tanks excavated by
them are silted up, and have not been re-dug or replaced
by other tanks. The villages know not their artisan population
who flourished there of old; they have dispersed all over the
country as agriculturists, or have crowded to towns as petty
traders. ' Leave off weaving ; supply us with the raw
material, and we will weave for you,' was virtually what
the East India Company said to the Indian weaver at the

BRITISH RULK IN INDIA. 103

beginninj^ of the centai.-3% and this mandate has been only
too scrupulously and cruelly followed."*

Social Causes. — The normal state of poverty in which a
very large number of the native population live, is traced by
many of the native agitators and journalists to the periodical
valuations of land. In only one province of India are the land
rents permanently fixed by law, and therefore unalterable, viz.,
in Bengal. In other parts fresh valuations are made every
thirty, twenty, and sometimes even fifteen years, so that
the unearned increment may go partly to the landlord {i.e.,
the Government), and not altogether to the tenant- Bengal
(it is claimed) has on this account always been more prosperous
than other parts of India, and therefore that the principle
of permanency of rents should be applied to the rest of India.

International Causes. — But perhaps the most potent cause
of all in producing the present "national" movement in India
is the phenomenal rise of Japan. In Japan, the East has
seen a small, weak and obscure community of islanders rise
suddenly into — not only a great eastern, but a great world-
power, and after prosecuting two great and successful wars,
spread her products and manufactures over a great part of
the civilised world. What Japan, with a perfectly free hand
has done, why might not India, with a similarly free hand, do?

Conclusion. — It must not be inferred from the foregoing
paragraphs that British rule in India has been a failure.
The agitators are loud and conspicuous, but they are a small
minority, and when we come to scrutinise what England has
really done for India, we may, without self-complstcency,
pronounce it a magnificent achievement. Droughts are still
frequent — as they must always have been — because, depending
on the monsoons, they are beyond the control of man ; but

* England and India, by Romesh C. Datt, pp. 127-129.

104 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS.

the irrigation works, and the complex and elaborate organisa-
tion to cope with famines and relieve distress, are nothing
short of marvellous ; and the loss of life becomes less and
less every time. Add to this the medical and sanitary systems
established, and the hospitals erected, the courts of law and
justice, and the native police which have been instituted, the
development of railways, the spread of education, and the
foundation of schools, colleges and universities, the harbours,
roads, bridges, and public buildings which adorn the municipal
centres ; the care of the aborigines, lepers and other outcasts,
and all the other beneficent work accomplished by the
missionaries; the abolition of the sdti, the suppression of
infanticide and of the thugs; the raising of the status of
women ; when we remember these things, and, lastly, when
we recall the incessant civil wars, broils, conspiracies, and
murders, which were a chronic characteristic of Indian life
before the country came under British rule, and which would
infallibly revive were British rule withdrawn, we may fairly
congratulate British statesmanship on the monument she has
raised to health, wealth, peace and progress in India.

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 105

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

ILLUSTRATING

The Growth of British Rule in India.

1602. East India Company incorporated.

1612, First Settlement founded at Surat.

1639. Fort St. George founded.

1640. Factory founded at Hughli.

16S5. Bombay becomes the* Company's headquarters on the Malabar Coast.

1698. Founding of I'ort William and Calcutta.

1707. Death of Aurungzeb, the Great Mughal.

1774. War dichireil belweeii Eivjlaad and France.

1746. Madras captured by Labourdonnais.

17M. Battle of St. Thome. The Nawib of the Karn&tik (Anwiru'din)

attacks Madras and is easily defeated by the French under Dupleix.
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748. (All eonqite-ts restored.)
I7i9, TheSecmd Anglo-French Struggle. Cause:— r/i* ambitious iehenie$ of

Dupleix, wlu) desired to found a French Empire in India.

1750. Siege of Triohinopoly. Muhammed Ali holds the city against Chand&

S&hib aided by the French.

1751. Siege of Aroot. Clive defends Arcot against Rdj4 S4bib.

1752-4. Siege of Trichinopoly (Second). The British defend Trichinopoly
against the Niz4m of the Dekhan and iiis French allies.
2756. Tlu Seven, Tears' M'ar <• ,mmences.
1736. The Blaclf Hole of Calcutta.
1757. Battle of Plassey.

THE FOUNDATION OF BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.

1760. Battle of Wandewash. Sir Eyre Coote defeats the Cointe de Lally

and gains the control of the Karnitik.

1761. Capture of Pondicherry.

1763. Massacre of Patnd.

1764. Battle of BaxAr. British victory. Ondh conquered.

1765. Treaty of AUah&bdd.
1767-9. War with Haidar Ali.

1773. The Regulating Act.

1771. The First RohillA War.

1778. First Maritbu War. (Ended with the Treaty of Salhai, 1782.)

106 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

1780. Haidar AU invades the Karniitik. (Second war with Haidar Alf

1780-3.)

1781. Battles of Porto Novo and Pollilore. British victories.

Treaty of Versailles, 1783.
1784. Pitt's India Bill.
1790. Third Mysore War (with Tipu, son of Haidar Ali).

1798. Marquis of Wellesley, Governor-General. The Subsidiary System.

1799. Capture of Seringapatam.

1802. Treaty of Bassein. The Mardtha Confederation broken.

1803. Battle of Assaye. (Second Marath4 War— with Sindhial.
1813. The East India Company loses the Monopoly of Indian Trade.
18U. War with the Gurkhas.

1817. Third Marith4 War.
Capture of Rangoon.

1825. Cession of Assam.

1826. Cession of Arakan and Tenasserim by the King of Ava.
1830. Mysore becomes a Protectorate.

1838. First Afghan War.

1839. Capture of Kabul and Kandahar.

1841. Disastrous British retreat through the Khyber Pass.
1843. Annexation of Sindh.

1845. The First Sikh War. British victories at Ferozshah and Mudki.
1816. ,, ,, ,, British victories at Aliwal and SobrAon.

Dhulep Singh made Maharajah of the Punjab.

1848. Second Sikh War. British victories at Multan, Chilianwilla and

Guzerat.

1849. Annexation of the Punjab.
1852. Annexation of Pegu.

18.53. Cession of Berar.
1835. Annexation of Oudii.

1837. The Indian Mutiny. The Sepoys alone mutinied, the Sikhs

remaining loyal.

1838. East India Company abolished.
1859. The Punjab made a Presidency.
1864. Bhootan War.

1875. Deposition of the Gaikw.xr of Baroda.

1877. Royal Titles Act— Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India.

1878. Second Afghan War.

" Scientific " definition of Indo-Afghan frontier.

1879. Treaty of Gandamak (Afghan).
1832. Indian troops serve in Egypt.

1835-6. Third Burmese War— Annexation of Upper Hurnia and the Shan
States.
18S7. Annexation of Quetta and other parts of Beluchistan.

BRITISH RULE IN INDIA.

10-;

18B8. Black Mountain Expedition (General McQueen).

1890. Treaty with China re bikkim.
Manipur Rising. Lushai Expedition.

1891. Black Mountain Expedition (General EUes).
Miranzai Valley Expedition (General Lockhart).

1895. Chitral Expedition (Colonel Kelly).
1897-8. " Mullah " War ; Afridi rising. Tirah Campaign ; Darijai and Chagni
actions.

1899. Indian troops serve in South Africa.

1900. Indian troops serve in China.

1901. North- West Frontier Province formed out of portion of Punjab.
190-!. Perpetual lease of Berar obtained— the Nizam renounces claims and

receives a pension.

1902. Coronation Darbar of King Edward VII.
1903-4. Tibet Expedition.

1903-4. Indian troops serve in Somaliland.
1(10.5. Indo-Japanese Commercial Treaty.
1905. Formation of Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam.
190.5. Renewal of Afghan Treaty.
1909. Indian Councils Act — increasing personal powers of Legislative

Councils and enlavglng elective element. Came into force, January,

1910.

GOVERNORS-GENERAL OP INDIA.

Warren Hastings

1774

Lord Dalhousie

... 1848

Lord Cornwallis

1786

Lord Canning

... 1855

Sir John Shore

1793

,, ,, first Viceroy

... (1858)

Marquis Wellesley

1798

Lord Elgin

... 1862

Lord Cornwallis

1805

Sir John Lawrence

... 18C4

Sir George Barlow

1805

Lord Mayo

... 18G9

Lord Minto

1807

Lord Northbrook

... 187-2

Lord Moira (Marquis of Hastings

1818

Lord Lytton

... 1876

Lord Amherst

1823

Lord Ripon

... 188J

Lord Wm. Bentinck

1828

Lord Dufferin

... 1884

Sir Charles Metcalfe

1835

Lord Lansdowne

... 188-(

Lord Auckland

183G

Lord Elgin

... 1394

Lord Ellenborough

1842

liOrd Curzon

... HW

Sir Henry Hardinge

1844

Lord Minto

... 1905

108 BRITISH DOMINION'S BEYOND THE SEAS.

CHAPTER IV.

The British in America.

SECTION I BEFORE 1858.

Early Attempti at Colonisation. — The history of the English
in America begins with the memorable expedition sent out in
1497, by King Henry VII., in which John Cabot, sailing due
west, reached that part of Labrador, which he termed New-
found-land, together with the island known by that name,
whose barren and rocky shores formed a poor substitute for
that fabled region of Cathay, which he had set out to find. If
the riches he had desired were not to be obtained, wealth of
another sort was not wanting, and the Bristol seamen, who
had followed Cabot, were quick to take advantage of the
limitless supply of fish yielded by the great sand banks, now
discovered for the first time. Eighty years later, the Bristol
fishing fleet to the banks had grown to fifty sail, and the
prosperity of the city had vastly increased in consequence. The
first attempt at colonisation was made by Sir Humphry
Gilbert in 1583, who sailed for St. John's with four ships.
When, however, the colonists saw the bleak and barren region
to which they had come, their hearts faUed, they became
mr,tinous and forced their leader to re-embark for England.
On the 'vay back occurred a great storm, and Sir Humphry,

THK BUITISU IN AMKUKA. 109

with all his ship's crew was drowned. His project perished

with him. His famous half-brother — Sir Walter Raleigh — fared

no better. In 158-i, he, with a charter from Queen Elizabeth,

organised expeditions to the state he had named Virginia in

honour of the Virgin Queen, hoping to build up there another

England. Disaster dogged his steps, and each expedition

seemed more unfortunate than its predecessor. The attempt

of the settlers to obtain land from the natives provoked such

savage reprisals that scarce a man returned to England. Thus

the reign of Elizabeth, glorious as it was, by reason of that

great movement of expansion which it inaugurated, saw but

little of its etlects. The age was one of conilict, and the men,

who, in a time of peace, would have become the leaders of

colonisation, were employed in repelling the attacks of their

country's enemies, or in preying upon their commerce. But the

work they did in exploring, and in bringing before men's eyes

the wealth that was to be gained beyond seas had a value all

its owTi smd bore ample fruit in the period of peace which

followed the defeat of the Spanish Armada. England, like

other countries, habitually bargained away the commercial

rights she had gained in war to private adventurers, or to

companies, who thus acquired the monopoly of a given trade.

Hence there arose numbers of trading companies, willing to

adventure considerable sums of money in enterprises to distant

lands. The work attempted with such disastrous results by

■ Raleigh was continued by two great corporations, the Plyniouth

Adventurers and the South Virginia Conjpany, and in 1X06, a

little settlement was made at Jamestown, the first of our

American colonies. Captain Smith, its founder, instead of

attempting, by force, to wring concessions from the Indians

adoi)ted the plan of attempting to conciliate them. The story

of his American bride Pocahontas, the " belle sauvage," is one

of the most familiar as well as the most pleasmg in the

romance of history.

110 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

In 1620, occurred the famous voj-age of the Mayfloiver,
which carried the Pilgrim Fathers from religious persecution at
home, to found in New England a state where they might
worship according to the dictates of their conscience. Three
years later, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were
settled.

In 1636, the CathoHcs, under Lord Baltimore, sought relief
from the pressure of the recusancy laws, by founding the
colony of Maryland, as their Puritan fellow countrymen of the
Mai I flower had founded the New England states of Massachu.
setts and New PljTcnouth. To the latter, there came a steady
Btream of Puritan emigration until by 164.'^ there were four
goodly groups of colonies, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
Connecticut and New Hampshire, which organised themselves
as the United Colonies of New England.

Then followed Georgia, the outcome of the phUanthropio
Oglethorpe's efforts on behalf of insolvent debtors, who,
doomed to imprisonment at home, might, he thought, here
become useful citizens and loyal subjects of King George.
The North and South Carolinas were granted by the first
Charles in payment of a debt to Robert Heath, and
transferred by him to the Earl of Arundel, who colonised
them in 1660, calling them the Carolinas in compliment
to King Charles II., who had confirmed his father's grant.
Lastly came New York and New Jersey, both of which
were originally settled by the Dutch and captured from
them during the Dutch war of 1664. The settled areas,
however, as yet comprised the merest fringe on the
Atlantic coast, hedged in by the AUeghanies, beyond which
lay the Indian villages and the French settlements along the
Mississippi.

TUE BRITISH IN AMKIJCA. Ill

Britain and her American Colonies. — Under the olil
aystem of colonisation, Britain treated her colonies as existin",'
merely for the benefit of the mother country. All other
nations were excluded fmm their trade in the hope of fostorin;^
the home industries. Spain had been the first of the great
European countries to adopt this policy, and her example had
been quickly followed by Holland and the other colonising
nations of the Continent. Britain had been the last to adopt
the practice. Until the time of the Protectorate, trade with
the Americas had been perfectly free. The charters granted
to the early settlers had clearly permitted them to trade with
other countries, and as early as 1620 the tobacco planters of
Virginia had their warehouses in Middleburg and Flushing
6uid did a lucrative and increasing trade with Holland. But
the Navigation Laws changed all this. The first of these,
passed in 1651, secured to Britain the carrying trade with the
American colonies and forbade the importation of European
oomniodities save in English bottoms, while the third, passed
In 1673, made the exportation of colonial produce, save to
England, illegal. The rigorous enforcement of these laws
would have ruined the trade of the colonies, and it is to be
feared that they were honovired rather in the breach than in
the observance. As a consequence, a vast illicit trade sprang
up, chiefly with the Spanish and the French West Indies, a
trade which the home government in vain attempted to check.
In the end public opinion became strongly heated on both
sides, and relations between the mother country and her
American offshoots grew more and more strained. The
Treaty of Utrecht recognised the evil by sanctioning trade
between the American colonies and those of the Spanish and
French colonios "where hitherto trade and cmnmerce had
been accustomed"; a proviso significant of the fact that the
British government recognised both the evil which had
prevailed and the diflflculty of dealing with it without extreme

112

BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

63 Lo'-ig 1^ of Greenwich

Kilph, H,ilHnd i Cf

TUR BRITISH IN AMI KKA. 113

measures, which they were loth to adopt. Even now, the
growth of manufactures in the colonies was distinctly dis-
couraged upon the ground that it interfered with British
industries and tended to lessen the dependence of the colonies
upon Britain. The colonists claimed, with justice, that the
home government attempted to cripple their trade and prevent
their advancement, while the EngUsh statesmen, who took
the opposite view, protested that they were quite within their
rights and that as the colonists had flourished under the
protection of the mother country, it was but just that the
latter should receive all the advantage possible from
the connection. Tempers rose high on both sides the
Atlantic. Matters were in this state when the illness of the
great Earl of Chatham left the control of affairs in the hands
of his able but erratic and headstrong lieutenant, Charles
Townshend. The latter determined, with the sanction of the
King, to make the colonists pay for the expense to which the
country had been put in their defence, by the imposition of
new customs duties and the rigorous exaction of the old. The
Navigation Acts, hitherto practically a dead letter in the
West Indian seas, were, henceforth, to be strictly enforced;
British cruisers picketed the seas, and Custom house officers,
armed with " writs of assistance " — obnoxious warrants, in
which no person was named — entered private houses at will
in the search for smuggled or excisable goods.

As a result of these " writs of assistance," pablio opinion ber'ame
greatly heated and a conOici arose exactly sinnhir to that between
the govL-mment and John Wilkes at home, and on the same sabject
—the legality of genernl warrants.

TouTishend's successor — Grenville — went a step farther.
Not only did he require the colonies to assist in paying for
their own defence, but they must now also help to defray
the cost of the defence of the empire. Since the war which

u

114 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

had ju=!t been concluded had been undertaken in the defence

of the colonies, it seemed reasonable from

, g ' an English point of view that the colonies

should aid in bearing the cost. The means

suggested — a tax on all stamped documents— seemed, again

from an Enghsh standpoint, equallj' unobjectionable. The

colonies thought otherwise. They were willing to vote, each

in its own Assembly, a sum of money to assist the old country

at this juncture, but they denied the country's right to tax

them while they were unrepresented in its Parliament.

In vain did British statesmen point out that the majority
of EngUsh boroughs were as little represented as they. The
colonists retorted that there was all the more need for reform.
The colonial Houses of Assembly carried resolution after
resolution denying the right of the British Parliament to levy
the imposition, and colonial feeling went with its represen-
tatives. Pubhc meetings were held, the agitation grew till
it attained the proportions of a tumult, riots broke out in
various parts of the country, eiBgies of Lord Bute, the King's
adviser and confidant, and of Oliver — the official " Stamp-
master" — were burned, and a band of young men calling
themselves " Patriots " broke into the Boston stamp-ofiice,
destroyed all the stamped documents it contained, and burnt
it to the ground.

From the agitation thus raised, grew the idea among the
leaders of colonial opinion that their future welfare lay in the
direction of independence. Henceforth they were constantly
on the qui vive for some cause of complaint which they
could make the ground of a breach with the home
government. The Stamp Act, which had been the cause
of all the tumult, was repealed in the following year (1766).
but its repeal was foolishly accompanied by a Declara-
tory Act insisting on the right of the British Parliament
to levy what taxes they pleased in the colonies. Thus wlula

THE BRITIsri IN AMF.IUCA. 115

In sefiuring the repeal of the obnoxious act, the coloninl
agitators felt that they had scoped a victory over the home
government ; the real point at issue — the right of the British
parliament to tax the colonies — was still in abeyance, and
might, should occasion arise, cause a renewal of all the trouble.
The occasion was not long in coming. The colonists had, wliilst
resisting the excise, acknowledged their liability to pay customs
duties. The year following the repeal of the Stamp Act, saw
the imposition of a customs duty on tea, glass, painters'
colours, paper and otiier small articles. It was understood
that the whole of the proceeds should be devoted to the
defence of the colonies. But the idea of independence,
conceived during the former agitation, had now taken deep
root. The agitation revived but with a difference. Formerly
the right of Britain to impose internal duties had aiuue been
contested, now its right to levy taxes of any description was
denied. Lord North, then in power, repealed all save the tax
on tea. This he retained '• on principle." But the question
was f. question of principle Eund of principle alone. By arrange-
ments made with the East India Company, the colonists would
have been enabled to get their tea actually cheaper than before,

if they would but consent to pay the small
The " Detestable duty of three-pence a pound now levied.

They refused to be bribed. A party of
youths, disguised as Red Indians, boarded the first ship
which entered Boston harbour laden with the "detestable
tea," and threw her cargo into the water. At other ports its
reception, if less violent, was no less decisive. The King,
already annoyed at the " fatal compliance " v.-hich led to the
withdra".-al of the Stamp Act in 1766, was now exultant.
The colonists were rebels and ho would crush them as such.
Troops wore despatched from Europe, and all persons impli-
cated in the recent di-^turbances ordered to be brought to
England for trial. " The colonists," decided the King, " must

116 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

either triumph or submit." He certainly had no fear of the
result. " They will only be lions while we are lambs," he
sapiently concluded, " if we take the resolute part they wiU
undoubtedly be very meek." There was little sign of meek-
ness aboub the proceedings of the rebellious colonies. "At a
time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied
with nothing less than the deprivation of American freedom,"
wrote George Washington, " no man should scruple or hesitate
a moment to use arms in defence of so great a blessing."

The spirit was general throughout the colonies. A congress
was called, including delegates from twelve colonies, and a
Declaration of Rights of America drawn up. Both sides now
prepared for war. The first outbreak occurred at Lexington
in 1775, when a party of British troops — sent to destroy a
store of arms and ammunition which the rebels had collected
at Concord — were attacked and utterly routed by the colonial
militia. Compelled, without the possibility of retaliation, to
run a gauntlet of fire, all order was lost and discipline
disappeared in the panic. The retreat became a headlong
race for shelter.

Roused by the sight of the regulars in flight before the
militia, the colonists flocked to arms. "Within a month 20,000
colonial troops had gathered before the British camp in Boston.
A body of them entrenched themselves on Bunker Hill,
a position which dominated the British camp, and it became
necessary to dislodge them. Twice the regulars, advancing
to the attack, were repvdsed by the steady and deadly fire
poured in by the American militia. The third time, stripping
off their equipments — a hundred and twenty-five pounds a man
was the fashion of the day — they again breasted the storm
of shot, reached the hill-top, and swept the Americans before
them down the opposite slope. The Battle of Bunker Hill
was accepted by the rebels in the light of an omen. It proved
that, given the advantage of the ground, their untrained

THE PRITISH IN AMKRrCA.

117

THE

AMERICAN COLONIES

AT TMt tNO or THE

SEVEN YEARS WAR

10 Z»Y '* *' f'rt^wle* /t

t*lf'<. Kunm^ t ,.•,

118 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

troopa might contend on terms approaching equaUty with the
disciplined soldierj' sent out by Britain. The course of the
war hardly confirmed this view. Throughout each of its
campaigns the Enghsh were almost uniformly victorious in
the field. The disasters to the British arms which cost
Britain her American colonies were due to grave faults on
the part of her commanders, rather than to any lack of
courage on the part of her troops. These events were followed
by the Declaration of American Independence in 1776, in
which the colonists proclaimed themselves independent of
Britain under the title of the United States of America.

The War of American Independence. — The war that
followed lasted through about seven years, during which
period the position of the colonists was often desperate. The
^oops wanted for food and clothing, were insufficiently armed,
snd badly provided with ammunition. Perhaps the worst
episode of that time was the winter spent by Washington at
Valley Forge, during which his troops died by htmdreds from
actual starvation, to say nothing of the lives which were lost
through exposure to the winter cold. Such a time is an
infallible test by which to distinguish the true from the false ;
and few, to whom it has been appUed, have survived the
ordeal better than the faithful band which braved, with
Washington, the rigours of that terrible winter.

Two great reverses to the British arms brought the war
to a close. The first was the surrender of General Burgoyne
at Saratoga, in 1777, which determined the French to espouse
the American cause and led them to form a treaty with the
colonists, recognising their independence, and making common
cause with them against Great Britain. The second was the
surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, in 1781, which
convinced the British government of the impossibility of
coercing the rebels into obedience ; and American Indepen-
dence was acknowledged by the Treaty of Versailles, 1783.

THF. nrtlTISH IN' AMEniCA. ll'.t

The English and French In America. — Although she had
been preceded m America b}- both Spain and England, Fnuice
had been by no means backward in exploring and Beltling the
continent. In 1534, Jacques Carticr discovered the St. Law-
rence, and, on his return to France, strenuously urj^ed the
desirability of colonising the country. In spito of his eflforts,
however, it remained imdisturbed by Europeans for more than
fifty years. Two names remain to mark his visit : the name
of the coimtrj- itself — Canada — which he, hearing the native;-
speak of their Ka/natha, or villages, mistook for the name of
the country ; and Montreal, which he dubbed Mont Koyal.
The country was, however, generally known as New France.

In the year 1598 a party of convicts attempted to effect a
permanent settlement in tlie country. The attempt failed after
five years of terrible privation. One or two other efforts were
made but without avail, until, in 1603, the celebrated Samuel
Champlain explored the St. Lawrence, and in the next year
returned with a small colonising party. " All New France."
quaintly remarks an old chronicler, " was contained in two small
vessels." The first settlement was made in Nova Scotia, and
thence exploring parties were sent throughout the country with
the view of determining the best site for a station. After four
years of soarch, the choice fell upon Quebec, and Champlain,
returning to France for stores, brought back with him two ship
loads of new colonists. His careful rule gradually overcame all
the difficulties which hampered the new colony, and the little
ectllement appeared upon the high road to success. Religious
dilficulties, however, came to check its progress. The early
settlers had been largely Huguenots. In 1627, the manage-
ment of the colony was entrusted to the Catholic Association
of the Hundred Partners, through which the great Cardinal
de Richelieu attempted to secm-e, in the first place, the con-
version of the North American Indians to Christianity ; and,
in the second, to extend the commercial interests of France

120 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYuND THE SEAS.

and, in particular, to develop the fur trade. The early settlers
now found themselves at variance with the authorities, and
the governor, Champlain, was compelled to reorganise hia
colony in accordance with the new conditions. Hence there
arose considerable embarrassment, and the development of the
colony was for a time slow. Greater embarrassment, however,
was soon to arise. The Enghsh, who had hitherto confined
their attention to the prosecution of the Newfoundland fisheries,
saw with the greatest jealousy the encroachments of the French
on a territorj' which they, in virtue of Cabot's discovery, had
been wont to consider their own. In 1614, a force was sent
from the Virginia Company's settlement at Jamestown against
the little French colony at Port Eoyal in Nova Scotia, which
it captured and annexed to the British territories. Nothing
more was done at the time, but, in 1621, James I. made a
royal grant of the whole of the peninsula to Sir William
Alexander, who immediately proceeded to colonise it with
Scotsmen.

The colony now for the first time received its name — Nova

Scotia — and, four years later, Charles I. created a distinct

order of baronets, each of whom, in addition to his knighthood,

received a grant of sixteen thousand acres

Ho¥a Scotia. in the new country on condition of sending
at least six men to settle there. Thus
augmented, the colonists found themselves sufficiently strong
numerically to invade the territories of their French neighbours,
and a force under Kirke was despatched against Quebec.
Champlain, called upon to surrender, heroically replied that
he was sure his adversaries would respect him more for not
abandoning his charge without first making trial of the
Enghsh gnns and batteries, and that he would, therefore, await
the attack. The attempt was fruitless, but, in the year
1629, the failure of supplies threw Quebec into the hands of
the English, who held it for three years, until 1632, when,

THE BRITISII IN AMERICA. 121

by the Treaty of St. Germains, Quebec and all the territory
in dispute, sweeping from Cape Breton to the extreme west,
was acknowledged to be French and Champlain, " the Father
of the Colony," returned to take up its administration once
more.

Champlain died in iri35, and the territory he had opened up
became the theatre of strife between the French and the
English for the next hundred and thirty years. The colonising
spirit, once aroused, became active among the French, and
their colonies crept further and further towards the interior,
and towards the south. With this came also a great develop-
ment of the missionary spirit and Franciscans and Jesuits
vied with each other in risking their lives to carry the gospel
among the Indian tribes. These planted settlements along the
lines of the great lakes, crept southward through Michigan,
Ohio, Wisconsin and Illinois until in 1673, they reached the
Mississippi, and floated down the great river in their canoes
to a point below the junction of the Arkansas. Other
adventurers, this time of a more mercenary type, followed
their course and tracing the river to its mouth, planted their
coimtry's flag on the shores of the Mexican Gulf.

Among the chief of these was La Salle, who, in 168'2,
explored the vast and fertile region which he named Louisiana
in honomr of the Grand Monarque, and who, sailing with a
band of adventurous colonists, was shipwrecked on the coast of
Texas, of which region, he, prompt to turn misfortime to
account, took possession also. By the close of the century
France held, in America, the whole of the coast from Hudson's
Bay to Maine, the vast and undefined territory known as New
France or Acadia, and now as Canada, besides large tracts in
the Mississippi valley. Thirteen years later, the treaty of
Utrecht saw the cession to Britain of Hudson Bay, Acadia
and Newfoundland. France still, however, retained Canada and
the settlements on the Mississippi. Here she more than held

122 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

her own, extending her borders along the Alleghany and th©
Ohio settling Indiana and founding the new state of Arkansas.
As might have been anticipated, the rivalry between the
French and the English was intense, and a guerilla warfare, in
which both parties sought the aid of the savage Indian tribes
was waged over all the neutral ground between their settle-
ments. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, the
English colonists combined for a grand attack upon the
French. The results were at first hardly of an encouraging
kind. A body of troops under Washington was defeated at Fort
Duquesne and forced to capitulate, and the whole country
west of the Alleghanies fell into the hands of the French, The
situation was serious and General Braddock was sent over from
England to save it. Courageous to a degree, he had no
knowledge of the peculiar tactics of Indian warfare, and it was
by means of Indian tactics that the contest was carried on.
Braddock was readily entrapped into an au^bush at Fort
Duquesne in 1755, and utterly defeated with the loss of half
his force. He was himself so severely wounded that he died
four days after. In New Brunswick, the English arms were
more successful, and in Nova Scotia, the French inhabitants
to the number of about 18,000, rising in arms, in the hope
of aiding their countrymen to reconquer the province, were
forcibly expelled by the English authorities under circumstances
of great hardship, for which, however, they or their leaders,
must be alone held responsible.

The expulsion of the Acadians has been pathetically told by
Longfellow in his poem " Evangeline," which, if it errs in concealing
the offences which brought upon the settlers so terrible a retribution,
by no means exaggerates their troubles or their homely worth. After
the final transfer of the country to Britain in 17G0, they were per-
mitted to return on condition of acknowledging themselves British
subjects, and about a sixth availed themselves of the permission
thus accorded.

THK Buirrsn in amkuica. 12;^

The Conquest of Canada. — The dofcatj of Wasbuigton, and,
later, of Bniddock,at Fort Duijuesne drew England's attention to
the importance of the conflict, and Pitt, keenly desirous of
extending our colonial empire, formulated a grand scheme for
the conquest of Canada. He urgently appealed to the colonists
to raise a sufficient body of troops, and

Pitt's scheme promised to reimburse them for their expendi-
onques . ^^^^ from the national exchequer, superseded
the incapable English commanders, and, with a daring dis-
regard of precedent, filled their places with youngor men than
as yet had ever been entrusted with important commands.
Boscawen in command of the British fleet intercepted French
re-inforcemcnts, and in 1758, Louisberg was captured togetlier
with Cape Breton and Prince Edward Islands, while Forbes
and Washington succeeded in carrying Fort Duqucsne, the
name of which was now changed to Pittsburg, in honour of the
great minister whose schemes promised so greatly for tlie
future of the British Empire. Under the present plan. General
Amherst was, with the main body of the British troops
to attack Fort Ticouderoga, Prideaux with a force of
colonists and Indians was to lay siege to Fort Niagara, and
then press on to Montreal, while General Wolfe, who had just
come from England with reinforcements was to sail up the
St. Lawrence and effect a junction with the other two. Then
the combined armies were to strike a decisive blow at the
French power in its great stronghold of Quebec.

The first part of the plan worked to admiration. Forts
Ticonderoga and Niagara were captured, and the French driven
from the country lying between Pittsburg and Lake Erie.
But here for the moment, the scheme was checked.

The settlements on Lake Champlain opposed an unex-
pectedly obstinate resistance to Amherst who was consequently
delavcd. Montreal too licld out bravely against Jolmson, so that

124 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

when Wolfe, who had arrived as arranged, sailed up the St.

Lawrence, he found himself on the Island of

The Capture of Orleans, before Quebec, unsupported by the
Quebec.

colleagues from whom he had anticipated

assistance and with no prospect of their speedy appearance.

To add to his difficulties, Quebec was from its position
practically impregnable. It stood on a tongue of elevated
land, between the river St. Charles and the river St. Lawrence.
On the water side, the cliffs sank sheer to the river, some
three hundred feet below : on the land side the city was guarded
by the Plains of Abraham. Wolfe, after a fruitless bombard-
ment, crossed the river and attempted to carry the position by
storm. The attempt was a failure. The English were, as
might have been expected, repulsed with heavy loss. Every
attempt to draw the wary Montcalm from his position of
vantage was unavailing. For six weeks, Wolfe saw his men
wasting away in sickness and inactivity, while he himself lay
prostrate, ill alike in body and mind.

The case seemed desperate, and Wolfe determined upon e
desperate remedy. He determined to climb, imder cover of
night, the heights behind the town, heights reputed maccessible,
and which therefore the enemy htid taken no thought to guard.
With muffled oars the boats crept up the river. Not a
voice broke the stillness save that of the young general himself
who repeated in low tones, to those who sat with him, Gray's
" Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," then in the height
of its fame. " Gentlemen," said he, as he finished the beautiful
lines, " I had rather be the author of that poem than take
Quebec." The landing was made, and the troops, animated by
the spirit of their leader, swung themselves up the sloping
cliff by the aid of the bushes and grass, until, when morning
dawned, there appeared before the eyes of the astonished
French general, the whole British army drawn up in battle
array on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm had been taken

THE BRITISH IN AMKRICA. 125

onawiueB. He had been outmana3Uvred, but he could still fight.
He prepared at once for the attack. The advance was received
in ominous silence by the ]iritish. Orders had been given that
the Enjilish troops were not to fire till they could see the
whites of the enemy's eyes. The men fell fast. The general
himself had been twice wounded, before the French had
reached the distance required. At last the word was given to
fire, and the blow so long delayed fell with deadly effect. The
French Une wavered. Then the order was given for the whole
1 English army to advance. The charge broke through the
French line, and the troops which composed it scattered in all
directions. But "Wolfe, who spite of his wounds had headed
the charge, fell back in the moment of victory, a musket bullet
in his breast. " They run, they run," cried an oflicer, who
had received him in his arms. " Who run ? " exclaimed the
young general, rousing from his stupor. " The French," was
the reply. " Then thank God, I die happy," he murmured.
The victory was a decisive one. It was the death blow of the
French hopes of an American dominion. The heroic Montcalm
survived his defeat but one day, and the city capitulated five
days after. On the battlefield, a column marks to posterity
the spot where the gallant Wolfe fell, and in the governor's
garden stands a stately monument to his memory and to tliat
of his chivalrous foe.

Early in the following year, Montreal surrendered, and
with its fall, the whole of New France passed into the posses-
sion of Britain. The surrender was confirmed in the Treaty of
Paris, 1763, which " ceded and guaranteed to his Britannic
Majesty, in fuU riglit, Canada with all its dependencies," and
provided England with another great group of American
colonies to take, in time, the place of those she was destined to
lose twenty years later.

Canada and the States. — The surrender of Canada to Great
Britain did not end the troubles of that colony. The inhabi-

126 Br.ITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

tants, some sixty thousand in number, were mainly French in
origin, and their control was now vested in a few British
officers and traders from the older settlement, who, in their
endeavours to lay hold of the best portions of the conquered
colony, vastly intensified the ill-feeling which existed between
the conquerors and the conquered. The Quebec Act of 1774
attempted to obviate the evil by confirming the French in
their possessions and civil rights on condition of their taking
the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, but the measure
only succeeded in rousing the English population without
pacifying the French.

In the War of American Independence, which began with
the battle of Lexington in 1775, the rebels against the Home
Country looked for assistance from the conquered Canadians,
and endeavoured, in attempting the subjugation of that
country, to strengthen their ovra cause by the addition of &
population inimical to Britain, while, at the same time, weaken-
ing the latter by adding ajiother to her list of foes.

The attack was at first successful. General Montgomery
succeeded in carrying Chambly, St. John and Montreal. But
Arnold — afterwards to win notoriety for his treason — fared
badly in his attack upon Quebec. Even when the victorious
forces of Montgomery came to his assistance, the town stiU
obstinately resisted. Montgomery, remembering Wolfe's ex-
ploit, attempted to repeat it. The attempt failed, and the
besiegers, struck with terror at the terrible slaughter among
them, ignominiously retreated. The siege lingered on for
some months, but nothing of moment was attempted, and at
last the appearance of reinforcements from England sent the
invaders home in hasty retreat.

The fusion of the two races in Canada was soon seen to be
a matter of the utmost difl&culty. Apart from the difference of
language, of manners and customs, it was impossible for two
distinct races, brought together under circumstances so pro-

TlIK I5RIT1SH IN AMERICA. 127

vocative of hostility, to readily ainalgainate, and it was but
natural that the French Canadians should feel dissatisfied with
their position in the colony. Of this dissatisfaction the United
States of America again attempted to make use when, in 1812,
war arose between them and England. "We can take the
Canadas without soldiers," said the Secretary of War in
Congress. " It is only necessary to send officers into the
provmces and the people disaffected towards their own
government will rally round their standard." The States were
mistaken. Aggrieved as the Canadians were, they desired
redress rather than revolt, and had no wish to exchange the
government of England, whatever its faults, for the form of
government offered by the States. Kegimeuts of Canadian
militia were speedily raised to assist in repelling the expected
invasion. Thrice the Americans crossed the frontier, but each
time without success. Then, in 1818, the attack was renewed,
Toronto was surprised, and for some months the invaders
were masters of a great part of Upper Canada, but the
autumn brought reverses which more than neutralised their
former successes, and they were compelled to retire. In the
next spring the attack was renewed with some success. But
this was again transient, for the cessation of the gi-eat
European war freed England's hands, a large armament
was despatched, and the seat of war promptly transferred to
the States. But Britain received as much injui-y as she
inflicted, and peace was signed at Ghent on Christmas
Eve, 1814.

The English and French Canadians.— The war had the
effect of temporarily uniting the French and English in
Canada. It did more. It showed that only in a cordial union
might the colony hope to find security against future attacks
from the States. Against this ujiion, various circumstance a
militated. The French were practically unrepresented in the
government, which was carried on from home by means of a

128 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

8et of officials who were really ignorant of what the country
needed and what it felt. The example of their American
neighbour before them, the colonists determined upon an effort
to shake off, at least some of the abuses imder which they
suffered. A manifesto to the government met with no re-
sponse. Discontent spread. The Assembly refused to vote
supplies. For four years no taxes were raised, the officials in
the employ of the government received no wages, and the
government itself came to a deadlock. Then, in 1837, the
smouldering discontent broke out into open
The Rebellion ^gbellion. The revolt was easily sup-

of 1837.

pressed, but the event roused pubuc
opinion at home on behalf of the colony, and in 1838 the Earl
of Durham was sent to Canada to report on the measures
necessary for the organisation of a satisfactory system of govern-
ment. He reported in favour of a union of the two Canadas under
a local government, responsible to the Assemblies and practi-
cally independent of England, and, in 1840, this was carried
into effect. Smce that time the career of the colony has been
one of iminterrupted tranquillity and prosperity, and the French
population, though still attached to its own manners and
customs, has entered heartily into the arrangement by which
it peacefully shares its political rights with the English. The
governorship of Lord Elgin, 1847-1854, may be said to have
organised Canada into a nation, so greatly did he reform the
representation, improve the administration of the law and
labour to convince the colonists that the independence granted
them by the home government was no empty show but a real
license to manage their own afiairs.

British Columbia.— In 1856, the disoovery of large deposits of
gold along the bed of the Fraser River and in Vancouver's Island
brought about a large influx of prospectors and diggers. In accord"
anee with the general rule these were followed by emigrants seeking
other and more orderly methods of industry, the population rapidly

THE BRITISH IN AMEHICA. 129

increased, towns sprang up, and in isTl, the district was admittod
into iliL- Dominion of Canada.

The Hudson's Bay Territory.— The Hudson's Bay Company
was iuoorporuted under a charter granted by Charles II. to Prince
Rupert and seventeen other nobles and gentlemen, securing to there
the monopoly of trade in the areas comprised by the basins of the
rivers draining into Hudson Bay. The district was known at first as
Prince Rupert's Land. At the time of the conquest of C&nada it
had only a few " forts " and some hundred and fifty serrants. Aiter
1763, fnr traders flocked to the country, and a rival company— the
North-West Fur Company of Montreal — began a dang<rou3 rivalry.
The contest ended, in Ib'Jl, by the amalgamation of the two com-
panies. In 1859, the Government refused to renew the charter and
the monopoly lax)sed, the district being now open to all. The
original possessions of the company were transferred to the
Government in 18G9, and, in the foUowinpr year, the district was
incorporated in the Dominion of Canada, and the Corporation
now trades as a private company.

130 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

SECTION II.— SINCE 1858.

Between the union of Upper and Lower Canada, in 1840,
and the American Civil War (1861-1864), there is little in
Canadian history to record, except the commencement of the
Grand Trunk Railway and the signing of the Reciprocity
Treaty with the United States in 1854.

Canada was at this time a house divided against itself.

There were, indeed, two systems of cleavage. First, there

were the united provinces of Upper and

Elements Lower Canada with a single legislature, on the

Disunion '^^^^ hand ; and there were, on the other hand,
the maritime provinces of New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward's Island, and Newfoundland.
These maritime provinces enjoyed exceptional advantages
with regard to European and oceanic trade, while (Upper
and Lower) Canada was practically land-locked, not only
by its distance from the sea, but from the fact that the
St. Lawrence is closed every year during several months in
winter. The former, therefore, {i.e., Canada proper) had to
depend almost entirely on her trade with the United States.
It was this which led to the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854,
under which both countries prospered remarkably. But the
great Inland Canada, although united by Act of Parliament,
was divided against itself. The Upper portion, with Toronto
for its capital, was English and Protestant ; while the Lower
country, with Montreal and Quebec for its chief towns, was
French and Roman CathoUc. The Upper country, again,
was rich, enterprising and progressive ; and, while contributing
an ever-increasing population and revenue, complained that it
was quite inadequately represented in the common Legislature.
The English element, too, (such as it was) in the Legislature,

THK BRITISH IN AMERICA. 131

tended to divide into two opposing parties, according to the
traditional principle of English politics; while the French
element, being without this tradition, and, therefore, being
united, could hold the balance, and thus rule the situation in
the Legislature. As Canada proper, moreover, was practically
cut off from the ocean, so the Upper province (Ontario) was
cut off even from the mouth of the St. Lawrence.

It was such considerations as these that led Mr. Jackson
Gait and others to advocate a federal union of all the Canadian
Provinces. With this object a Conference,
attended by delegates from the different
pi-ovinces, met at Quebec in 1864, and came to conclusions
favourable to federation. There were difficulties with Nova
Scotia, and also with England, which at first looked askance
on the project ; but the majority of Canadians were in
favour of the measure, and in March, 1867, the Imperial
Parliament passed the British North American Act, pro-
viding for the voluntary union cf British North America
under the title of the " Dominion of Canada." By this Act,
a Canadian Parliament was established, consisting of two
Houses, viz., a Senate, whose members are appointed for life
by the Crown, and a House of Commons, elected by
the different Provinces for five years at the longest, each
province sending a number of representatives according to its
population. No property qualification is necessary. The
House chooses its own Speaker. The Executive is in the
hands of the King, delegated by him to the Governor-General
assisted by a Privy Council. Besides this federal government
each province has its Legislature to look after its own affairs.

The Dominion, at first, consistea of the four provinces of
Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, alone.
And even in one of these. Nova Scotia, there soon arose a
violent agitation, under Joseph Howe, for repeal of the union,
on the ground that her people had not been fully consulted

132 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

before the passing of the measure, and that the mterests of

the Province had been sacrificed. This danger was only

averted after much negotiation, and a certain modification of

the terms upon which Nova Scotia had entered the union.

The other provinces joined the union later on, as follows : —

The Hudson Bay Company sold its territories to the Dominion

in 1870, and from part of these territories Manitoba was

formed, and annexed to the Dominion in the same year. The

half-breeds in that country, who were indeed very cavalierly

treated, resisted annexation, and tried to organise a revolt

under Louis Kiel. The rising (known as the Red River

Rebellion) was, however, easily crushed by Colonel Wolseley,

and Riel made his escape for the time being. It will be

better to anticipate here the rest of Kiel's career. Besides

Manitoba there remained the vast undefined region, known as

the North West Territorv, to be dealt with.
Louis Riel.

In those regions the half-breeds had been

dealt with even more unjustly than those in Manitoba;

for while the latter received 240 acres of land a-piece

as compensation for the loss of their previous rights,

the former received nothing at all. There was talk about

compensating them, and the Government was empowered

by Act of Parliament to satisfy them. But nothing

was done. Under these circumstances discontent ripened

into resentment and exasperation. In the previous rising

Riel had been guUty of putting to death with great brutality a

loyalist named Thomas Scott. For this murder, while a

general amnesty was granted to the rest, Riel and another

were sentenced to five years' banishment, which period Riel

spent in Montana as an American citizen. In March, 1885, Riel,

who had received a deputation from the half-breeds of the

Territories, returned and, placing himself at their head,

proclaimed himself " President " of a Provincial Government.

He then captured a Government post, and seized the stores.

TIIF r.lIlTISlI IN AMKRICA. 1?^3

In a couple of months, however, hi was defeatccl and captured,
and being tried at Regina, was found guilty of treason and
hanged.

British Columbia entered the Dominion in 1871, on
condition that her seaboard on the Pacific should be connected
by railway with the eastern railway system of Canada.

Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion in 1S73, and
Alberta and Saskatchewan (formed out of the districts of
Alberta, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Athabasca) in 1905.

Newfoundland — with its dependency Labrador — never
joined the Union, and still remains independent of the
Dominion.

In federating her provinces, Canada had a choice of
principles ; she might have adopted a " rigid constitution,"
defining sharply tlic powers to be wielded by the Central or
Federal body, and giving all other powers, not so defined, to
the local or provincial legislatures. This was the plan adopted
by the United States, and afterwards by Australia. Or she
might have given the Local legislatures certain defined powers,
and made the Central legislature the residuary legatee (so to
speak) of all powers not included in such definition. Mindful
of ihe trouble and difficulties which the United

The Federal ^^.^{.^3 Congress had had with the local or
Plan. °

minor state legislatures, which from time to

time claimed large, undefined powers — sometimes entirely

fatal to Federation — Canada chose the latter princiiile ; and

defining rigidly the powers of the provincial legislatures,

gave all the other undefined powers to the Central or

Dominion legislature. By this means a great deal of trouble

and danger has been avoided ; nevertheless forasmuch as the

individual provinces bear a far larger proportion to the whole

Dominion than the individual American States do to the

United States Commonwealth, the tendency in Canada has

been to allow a more and more liberal .interpretation of the

134 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

powers defined and assigned to the provincial governments.

After the Union had been effected there were several
problems of greater or less moment to be faced. One of the
first was that of appellate jurisdiction. In the British Isles
the House of Lords is the highest Court of Appeal for the
three Kingdoms. It was felt in Canada too to be desirable
that there should be a common central Court of Justice.
Accordingly, a Supreme Court was established, lilve that in
the United States, with appellate jurisdiction both in civil and
criminal cases, for the whole Dominion. An appeal from this
court lies to the Judicial Committee of the Privj' Council at
home, a feature necessary to render Canada judicially a portion
of the British Empire (1876).

Another task to be faced was that of the great Railways.
Two systems had been contemplated as a condition of
Federation ; one to unite the maritime provinces (Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick) with the upper St. Lawrence ;
and secondly, the Canadian Pacific, to unite the Atlantic with
the Pacific coast. The former of these was duly begun, and
was completed in 1876. The latter was found to bristle with
difficulties. At first it was intended to carry it out as a great
public work ; but this being found impracticable, it was
resolved to hand it over to a private company. But what
with incompetent companies, want of money, alternative
schemes, Mackenzie-Macdonald rivalry, changes of ministry,
and royal commissions, the work — to the extreme dissatis-
faction of British Columbia — continually hung fire, and it was
not until 1885 that it was an accomplished fact. That success
was finally achieved was due to the genius of Sir John
Macdonald, Sir Charles Tupper, and Mr. Donald Smith (after,
wards Lord Strathcona). The Canadian Grand Trunk Railway
is now one of the largest and most important in the world.

The Fisheries formed another question that had to be
faced. By the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the United States

THE BRITISH IN AMKIUC'A. 185

had a right to fish in Canadian waters. This Treaty canio to
an end in 1866, and negotiations for renewal failed. Yet the
Americans continued to fish as before. This gave rise to
seizures, confiscations and reprisals. At length a joint
Commission met at Washington in 1871, and arranged terms
by M-hich the Americans should be allowed to fish in Canadian
waters on paying Canada an indemnity, the amount of which
was to be fixed later on. Another Commission accordingly
met at Halifax in 1877, which to the great surprise and
disappointment of the United States awarded Canada the sum
of five and a half million dollars. The American Secretary of
State, Mr. Evarts, sought to challenge the award ; but it was,
with some reluctance, paid in the following year. A new
treaty regulating the whole fishery question, agreed upon at
Washington in 1888, was vetoed by the United States Senate,
and since then fishing has been carried on by the Amerioans
on a system by which the latter take out and pay for licenses.

The Bering Sea seal fishery caused another difficulty later
on, and several Canadian vessels in the Pacific were seized by
the United States. In 1892, this matter was submitted to
arbitration, and Canada was awarded damages to the amount
of four hundred and sixty-four thousand dollars for the
seizures. At the same time a satisfactory agreement was
come to on the future conduct of the seal fishing.

The San Juan boundary question constituted another
difficulty of long standuig. In 1846, the boundary between
Oregon and Canada was settled, not without some danger of a
rupture between Great Britam and the United States. lioth
countries had modilied their claims, and the boundary Wiis
fixed so as to include the whole of Vancouver Island within
Canadian Territory ; but the Gulf of Georgia and the Straits of
Juan de Fuca, south of Vancouver, are full of islands, and the
exact water boundary had never been agreed upon. The chief
pomt in dispute was the position of the island of San Juan;

136 BKITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

and the island was occupied by both powers in a joint military

occupation. At length in 1872 the question was submitted by

arbitration to the German Emperor, whose decision was in

favour of the United States.

But the subject of Foreign Trade constituted the most

absorbing of all Canadian problems. Under the Reciprocity

Treaty of 1854 with the United States,
Protection. ^ ^. ,-,,-,, . -, ,, ,

Canadian trade had been carried on smoothly

and happily. If Upper and Lower Canada were partially

at the mercy of the maritime provinces in the matter

of Atlantic trade, they were in an admirable position for

commercial intercourse with the northern portion of the

United States. And this intercourse they enjoyed by the

treaty already mentioned. After the American Civil War,

however, the authorities at Washington, thinking that tliey

had Canada in their power, resolved to utilise the opportunity

so as to make annexation the only alternative. They

therefore gave notice to abrogate the Treaty of 1854, which

they accordingly did in 1866. Canada replied by pushing on the

movement for Federation; which, being accomplished in 1867,

consolidated Canada and placed all internal trade relations on

an equal footing. New markets for Canadian trade were

sought for in the West Indies, in Europe and elsewhere ; so

that instead of languishing as was anticipated, Canadian trade

nearly doubled itself in the years that followed the abrogation

of the 1854 Treaty. After the seven years of plenty, however,

there came a period of dearth and leanness such as had never

before been experienced in Canada. A cry for the protection

of native industries then arose, and the whole Dominion

became divided into camps on this question. The elections of

1878 turned almost entirely on the question of Protection, and

the Protectionists came in with a large majority. They then

declared what was termed the ''National Policj'," which was

" to prevent Canada from remaining a ' slaughter market '

THR BRITISH IN AMKHICA. 137

for American manufactures " ; and further, " to select for a
hiyh rate of duty, those articles which were manufactured or
could be manufactured in Canada, .and to leave without
additional duties such articles as were neither made nor likely
to bo made by home manufacturers." *

• This became the stereotyped policy of the Dominion, and
its adoption in 1878 seems to have saved the situation. It
checked the stream of emigration of Canadians to the United
States, weakened the voices of those who were already
clamouring for commercial union with America, and initiated
a new period of prosperity. When Sir John Hacdonald, the
great exponent of the National Policy, issued his last election
address (February, 1891) he reviewed the results of Protection
in the following words : "When in 1878, we were called upon
to administer the affairs of the Dominion, Canada occupied a
position in the eyes of the world very different from that
which she enjoys to-day. At that time a profound depression
hung like a pall over the whole country, from the Atlantic
ocean to the western limits of the Province of Ontario, beyond
which to the Rocky Mountains stretched a vast and almost
unknown wilderness. Trade ivas depressed, manujacturea
languished, and — exposed to ruinous competition — Canadians
were fast sinking into the position of being mere hewers of
wood and drawers of water for the great nation dwelling to the
south of us. We determined to change this unhappy state of
things. We felt that Canada, with its agricultural resources,
rich in its fisheries, timber, and mineral wealth, was worthy
of a nobler position than that of being a alaujlitcr market of
the United States. We said to the American, ' We are
perfectly willing to trade with you on equal terms. We are
desirous of having a fair reciprocity treaty, but we will not
consent to open our markets to you while yours remain closed
to us.' So we inaugurated the National (Tariff Reform) policy.

♦ LMot, Vol. v., p. 805.

138 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE S^AS.

You all know what followed. Almost, as if by magic, tJie
whole face of the country underwent a change. Stagnation
and ajjathy and gloom— aye, a/nd want and misery too — gave
place to activity and enterprise and prosperity. The miners
of Nova Scotia took courage ; the manufacturing industries in
our great centres revived and multiplied ; the farmer found a
market for his produce, the artisan and labourer employment
at good wages, and all Canada rejoiced under the quickening
impulse of a new-found life. The age of deficits was past, and
an overflowing Treasury gave to the Government the means
of carrying forward those great works necessary to the reali-
sation of our purposes to make this country a homogeneous
whole."

There was still a Liberal Party however which advocated
accommodation with the United States ; but that country
had already adopted a high protective policy, and by the
McKinley Tariff of the States large duties were placed upon
Canadian raw products. The Canadian Liberal Party there-
fore lost ground. But after the death of Sir John Macdonald
(1891) a modification of the " National Policy " was advocated
with some success ; anil when Mr. Laurier, a " Moderate
Protectionist " became Prime Minister, he was able to initiate
a new departure. This was effected in 1897, the principal
feature of the alteration being a preference of 12|- per cent. —
rising in 1898 to 25 per cent, on British goods. In 1900, this
preference was fm'ther raised to 33^ per cent, {i.e., below the
duties imposed upon the goods of other nations). This Tariff
was somewhat modified in 1907, but not to any material
extent ; and its effect has been to checkthefallingoff of British
exports to Canada, and also to stimulate greatly the Canadian
trade with Great Britain.

In the working out of the Dominion Constitution there has
been (as observed above) some friction between the Central
government sitting at the Federal Capital of Ottawa, and the

THK BUITISU IN AMEKICA. 13'J

various local governments sittinj^ in the provincial capitala.

This however could hardly be otherwise, owinj^ to the great

difliculty in delining "local interests," outside which the

provincial chambers were not to legislate. On questions of

the franchise, licensing, education, railways, national dofence,

etc., there has been a good deal of difVereuce of opinion, and

now and again sonieLhing like a dead-lock has been tlireatened.

But a modus vivendi has always been found at length, and

on the whole the constitution has worked out with reasonable

harmony. In Mr. (now Sir Wilfred) Laurier, Canada has

found a most able and liberal-minded successor to Sir John

Macdonald.

One difficulty of international importance remains to be

noticed — the settlement of the Alaska boundary. When Great

Britain began pushing out her Canadian claims

westwards, she found that Russia claimed
Boundary.

Alaska; so, by a treaty between that country
and Great Britain in 1825, a delimitation (though a rather
vague one) was mapped out between Alaska and British
North America. Prince of Wales's Island was assigned to
Russia, and the Canadian boundary was to run from the soutli
of that island through Portland Channel, and striking the
Continent at 56' North Latitude, was to proceed northward
parallel to the windings of the coast, but not more than ten
marine leagues inland ; and Great Britain was to have the free
navigation of the rivers flowing into the Paciiic. Futile
attempts had been made to lay down a more exact boundary,
but it was not thouglit worth while to spend money on the
subject, when in 1867 the United State-; purchased Alaska
from Russia. The boundary question was still left in
abeyance, until the discovery of gold in the Yukon district
(.\ugu8t, 1896), when a great rush to Klondyke took place, and
a more precise boundary definition became imperative.
Negotiations still for some lime proved abortive, and it was

140

BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

THE BRITISH IN AMEKICA. 141

not until 1903 that a joint Coniiuission was agreed to of llirce

American and three EngUsh and Canadian jurists. The chief

questions were (1) What was the Portland Channel '? and (2)

Was the inland limit to go round the estuaries of the rivers,

or to cut across their mouths ? In the result the Commission

decided on these points in favour of the States, the English

representative (the Lord Chief Justice of England) voting with

the three American against the two Canadian Commissioners.

The verdict gave the United States control over the maritime

approaches to the Klondyke goldfields, together with two

islands situated near the proposed terminus of a projected

Trans-Canadian railway. The issue was received in the

United States as a brilliant diplomatic victory, but it was

regarded in Canada as a betrayal of her interests by the

mother country.

There are now about 23,000 miles of railways in Canada,

and trade and commerce have progressed prodigiously in

recent years. The total value of Canadian

*^"®"* exports in 1904 was 213,000,000 dollars ; in

Ppo^r6Ss

1908 it had risen to 280,000,000 dollars. The

total value of imports during the same period rose from

2.^1,000,000 to 3:i8,000,000 dollars. The wheat exported to

Great Britain in 1905 was valued at ^62,000,000, and m 1908

at Je8,000,000.

Education. — Each Province has its own univeri^ity (or
universities), thirteen in all; and the a\erage attendance of
students is about 20,000.

142 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

CHAPTER V.

The BritLsh in the West Indies.

SECTION I.— BEFORE 1858.

The important archipelago known as the West Indies received
its name from Columbus when, in 1492, he sighted the little
island of San Salvador and concluded that he had succeeded
in his daring attempt to reach India. Together with all the
ma.inland of America, the Spaniards laid claim to these islands.
Here their earliest settlements had been made, and hence
they drew their first cargoes of gold and sUver. But the
mineral wealth of the islands was soon exhausted ; the mines
of Peru proved far more attractive, the Spanish planters failed
to recognise the mexhaustible source of riches that lay in the
fertility of the soU, and the West Indies fell into neglect.
Other nations with a keener eye to their advantages soon
showed themselves covetous of them, and, with the waning
of SiJain's power at sea, there came numerous attempts on the
part of the other great colonising nations to wrest from her,
possessions whose value she despised.

The first of Englishmen to trade with the West Indies
was Sir John Hawkins, who proceeded thither in 1562 with a
cargo of slaves from the Guinea coast, and won for himself
unenviable notoriety as the founder of the horrible trafiic ui
flesh and blood which flourished under the name of the " slave
trade." Queen Elizabeth, however, awarded him a baronetcy,

Tin; BUITISH IN THE "WEST INDIES.

143

144 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

with the power to add " a negro in his proper colour, bound
and captive " to his coat of arms.

His last voyage was disastrous. He was utterly defeated in
flji unequal contest with the Spaniards, many of his men were
slain, and others taken captive and sent into Spanish slavery.
But the disaster served only to intensify that hatred of Spain
which was rapidly growing among EngUsh seamen. Adven-
turer after a(i\euturer sought revenge and plunder from the
Spaniard in the Spanish Main, and many small settlements
were made on various islands in the West Indies by the
buccaneers, who found them convenient for the purposes oi
retitting their ships when damaged by storm or by the shot
oi an eneuay.

The Spanilh Haia. — The Spanish Main was the name given to
the northern coast of South America, from the mouth of the
Orinoco to the Istlimus of Panama, and was sometimes extended to
include the chain of islands which, with this coast, forms tl.e
boundary of the Caribbean Sea. it is not infrequently applied to tha
sea itself.

Barbadoes. — One of the first of the West Indiaji islands to
be colonised was Barbadoes, first settled by a London merchant,
Sir Wilham Courteen, in 1605, and this island, hardly larger
than the Isle of Wight, became during the whole of the
seventeenth century our most important colony, save only
the settlements on the mainland of America. Its fertiUty was
immense, and rich cargoes of indigo, cotton, wool, tobacco
and sugar were sent home every year from its plantations.
To those plantations also were shipped thousands of slaves
from the coast of Africa, and not a few white slaves — prisoners
of war or debtors from the English jails. Thus, in 1657, some
seven or eight thousand Soots, captured at the Battle of
Worcester, were shipped to the Indies, the majority of whom
found their way to the Barbadoes. Seven years later there
began a new epoch in the history of the island, for in 1663 it,

THE BRITISH IN THK WEST INDIES. 145

together with the other Caribbean Islands, was taken out of
the hands of the old proprietors and placed under the direct
authority of the Crown.

Jamaica, the chief of our West Indian possessions, is an
island nearly forty times the size of Barbadoes, and is note-
worthy as the place chosen by Columbus as a refuge when the
ingratitude erf Ferdinand of Spain and the treachery of the
agents of the Spanish court forced him to See from Spain.
Time after time the fertile island had been harried by the
lawless buccaneers of the Spanish Main without any permanent
settlement having been effected, or the original Spaaiish
planters, now sunk in indolent ease and vice, being displaced.
Indeed, the island remained the headquarters of the buccaneers
long after it had been added to the British possessions by the
force which Cromwell despatched to the Indies under the
command of Admirals Penn and Venables, in 1655.

The history of Jamaica has been, on the whole, a tragical
one. On the 7th of June, 1692, without any previous warning,
the whole island was desolated by an earthquake of the most
appalling kind, by which chains of hills were riven asunder,
the river courses changed, and whole plantations trans-
planted to other parts of the island or swallowed up by the
immense fissures which opened in the ground, while the
number of the dead was such that the putrefying corpses bred a
pestilence which carried off three thousand of those who
remained. The next year, when a new Port Royal was rising
on the shores of the sea that had swallowed up the old, one
of the hurricanes for which the island is famous, but one of
exceptional violence even for Jamaica, swept over the island,
carrying away the greater part of the houses that had been
rebuilt. Nor does the tale of misery end here, for, in the
following year, the ill-fated island was ravaged by a foe not less
destructive than the tempest. Du Casse, the French governor
of Hayti, swooped down on its shores with a powerful ffeet

146 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

and fifteen hundred troops, harried the south and east of the
island, plundered and devastated a vast number of plantations,
and, though ultimately defeated and compelled to retire, bore
with him a great booty and some thirteen hundred slaves.
There was yet another descent from Hayti during the "War
of the Spanish Succession in 1702, in repulsing which the
famous Benbow met his death, as so gallant a seaman must
have wished to do, in the moment of victory. Ten years later
another storm swept the island, desolating its eastern side.

The history of Jamaica is indissolubly bound up with that
of the nefai-ious traffic in slaves. Between 1655, when
the island came into English possession, and 1807, when the
iniportation of slaves was prohibited, it is estimated that the
number introduced was no less than 800,000. In the latter
yeau the negro population numbered 360,000, and statistics show
that from then to the final emanicipation of the slaves, in 1834,
the number decreased at the rate of two thousand a year, in
lieu of increasing by about three thousand, according to the
ordinary laws of population. The same statistics prove, to the
indelible disgrace of the planters, that the decrease was due to
the annual loss of some three thousand slaves by ill-usage.

Long, iD hig " History of Jamaica," asserts that the early West
Iniiian planters "thought it no greater sin to kill a negro than to
knock a monkey on the head," and summarises the law of the island
on the subject as follows : " If a white man murders a white man, he
ought to die for it; but if a white man murders a black man, he
ought to be acquitted," while no punishment, however strocious in
its details, seems to have been thought too terrible for a black who bo
far forgot the inferiority of his race as to lift a hand against a white.

At this time, too, the mountains and the thickest recesses of the
woods were infested by runaway negroes or their descendants, who
had originally been the slaves of the dispossessed Spanish planters.
These "maroons" roamed the island in predatory bands, seeking
occasions for robbei^ and violence, fomenting an insurrectionary
spirit among the slaves engaged upon the plantations, and, not
infrequently, inciting tbem to open rebellion.

THE BTilTI'^n IN THE WEST INDIES. 147

Under such conditions, it may be readily imajjined tbat tbe
plavcs were constantly breaking ijito open revolt. Ab in such
insurrections they were aided by their outlawed brethren from
the hills, it is not to be wondered at that the risings were
accompanied with the most revolting incidents of cruelty, the
whites being commonly surprised while asleep, and butchered
in the most savage manner with the accompaniment of all the
horrors a barbarous invention could suggest. It is even more
saddening to reflect that the punishment inflicted for such
crimes was not inferior in horror. Even the most brutal of
crimes committed by savages can hardly justify the barbarities
inflicted in the name of justice. The treatment meted out
to the negro population was such as to degrade them to
the level of the brutes. In consequence, the efforts made
to ameliorate their lot and to arouse a spirit of indepen-
dence and manly dignity, succeeded only in rendering tliem
more turbulent and unruly. Thus, in 1B32, after some twenty
yeajs of such efforts, there occurred the most terrible of all the
insurrections among the slave population. For several days
the rebels held the upper hand, giving way to every demon-
stration of fury and lust, and the rebellion was not quelled
until the whole island had been placed under military law.
Then the blacks submitted, under promise of pardon, and
returned to their plantations, only to find that their owners
were not in the least inclined to endorse the leniency of the
military, and that a terrible retaliation was yet in store.
Altogether about a dozen white men had been murdered, most
of whom had earned an undesu-able reputation for tlie cruel
treatment of their slaves. In revenge for this, more than
fifteen hundred negroes were executed, some after the merest
semblance of a trial, whUe others without even a warning, were
shot down where they stood. In ad<lition, large numbers who
were shown to have taken part in the insurrection died under
the lash of their infuriated masters. The report of thca«

148 BKITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS.

proceedings thrilled Eugland with horror. The arguments that
Clarkson and Wilberforce had so eloquently adduced against
the ungodly traffic in human flesh and blood acquired a new
force from this bloody retribution and the massacre of the
rebels in Jamaica, doubtless contributed in no smaU degree to
the general emancipation of the slaves throughout the British
dominions, the act for which was passed by the British ParUa-
ment in the following year (1833).

Effect of the Abolition of SlaYery.— The abolition of slavery
has, however, not been an unmixed good. All the institutions of the
island were planned for a condition of slavery, or were the outcome
of it, and have proved themselves strangely unsuited to the state of
freedom which now prevails. The fertile plantations of the island
display signs of neglect, its whole appearance is indicative ol
indolence and mismanagement. The negroes, freed from the bond
of slavery, and without that moral elevation which is essential to
the proper use of freedom, have fallen for the great part into apathy
and discontent. Indolent by disposition, and no longer forced to
work, the negro has chosen laziness as the better part in a climate
where the fruit of the soil suffices for sustenance, and has shown
himself definitely averse from work either for his own benefit or for
that of another. This disinclination to labour has led to the im-
portation of large numbers of coolies, but the more enlightened of
the negroes have of late, imder the efforts of missionaries and
benevolent planters, risen considerably in the scale of civilisation.
As a natural result their wants have increased, and with them the
inducement to labour. Black settlements have sprung up in
various parts of the island, and already the results begin to appear
both in the character of the population and in the amount of the
exports.

Antigua.- Perhaps the most important of our eai-ly West
Indian possessions, with the exception of Jamaica and
Barbadoes, was the island of Antigua. It was colonised in
1632, by Thomas Warner, the buccaneer. In 1666, a descent
of the French from the neighbouring island of Martuiique,
resulted in the devastation of the island. In the next year,
however, Lord Willoughbj', placed it once more on a favourable
footing by sending thither planters from his colony of

THE BRITISH IN THK WEST INDIES. 140

Barbadoes, who speedily availed themselves of its unrivalled
advantages for the cultivation of the sugar cane. Here the
atrocities of the slave trade were recognised at a far earlier
date than in Jamaica, and its rigours mitigated. In 1834, too,
Antigua alone, of all the West India Islands, chose to give
complete liberty to its slaves, instead of making them pass
through the period of probation permitted by the Act and
adopted by the remainder of the British West Indian Islands.

Here also the results of the emancipation seem to be of a
more encouraging nature than elsewhere, the blacks, perhaps
as a result of their previous state of comparative liberty, having
accommodated themselves to the new conditions much more
readily, and gradually settled down into a thrifty and indus-
trious section of the community.

The Bermudas. — Older than any of the British possessions
in the West Indies, are the curious islands known as the
Bermudas, a group of isolated rocks said to be as numerous a^
the days in the year, but of which twelve only are inhabited.
On one of them was wrecked, in 1593, an English navigator,
Henry May, who with the twenty-five survivors of his crew
passed five months upon them, ere they succeeded in building
^nth the scanty means at their command, a bark to carry them
safely to England again. The same fate befell Sir George
Bomers, while on his way to take office as deputy-governor of
Virginia. He took possession of "the stUl vex'd liermoothes "
Ln the name of Queen EUzabeth, and returned to found a small
colony there, where he died in 1611. Their position, six hundred
miles to the east of the coast of America, made them of great
vsJue to a trading nation, as an ocean halting place, and ever
Buice their discovery they have remained in British hands.
Their annexation to America was pro{)08ed by Washington,
who saw in their possession an inestimable means of barekssiug
Lritish trade. To prevent their ever beiug turned to such a

150 BUITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

purpose, they have been fortified until they arc almost impreg-
nable. In addition a dockyard has been buUt, the entrance to
the harbour cleared, and the Bermudas made one of the
principal maritime stations of the British fleet in the Atlantic.
To the southwest lies the greater group of the Bahamas. One
of these, New Providence, was settled by England in 1629.
The islands during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
formed a favourite battle ground for the English, French and
Spanish fleets, besides serving as the head-quarters of tlie
buccaneers.

Trinidad, a square shaped island to the north of Guiana,
ostensibly forming part of the West Indies, but really lying on
the continental shelf, was long a useless and neglected
possession of Spain. In 1797, when it was captured by Sir
Ralph Abercromby, its population numbered some seventeen
thousand, which has increased tenfold in the period during
which it has remained under British rule, while the resources
of the island are being, year by year, more fully exploited.

[The Continental possessions of British Gtdana and
Honduras though, strictly speaking, no part of the West
Indies are most convenientlij dealt with It ere.]

Gaiana had long been the aim of the hardy adventurers of
Elizabethan times, who sought by exploring it to reach the fabled
El Dorado, with its golden city of Manoa, there to win such
riches as the world had never seen. The golden phajitom had
lured many on to death. Others following it achieved lasting
glory. Balboa sought it and fovmd the Pacific ; Pizarro, in its
quest, conquered the empire of Peru. Our Enghsh Ealeigh
had gone thither in 1595, and it was the scene of the last luck-
less venture of his adventurous life. Using the golden fable to
work upon the cupidity of James I., he procured his own
release from prison in the hope of finding tlie wherewithal to

THE BRITISH IN THE WEST INDIES. 151

Bate tho monarch's greed. The lajid is hot and pestilential,
like all the littoral of the Caribbean sea, but with a soil
luxuriantly fertile and, in the uncleared districts, covered by
a dense growth of primeval forest, all but impassable to
man. Sugar is the staple product, and sugar mills and rum
distilleries are landmarks in each village. The territory was
first settled by the Dutch East India Company in 1580, seized
by Britain in 1796, restored in 1802, recaptured in 1803, and
finally confirmed to Britain in 1814.

The Venezuelan boundaries of British Guiana have until now
never been clearly outlined— a large tract of country having been
claimed by both. The matter was referred to arbitral i..n, imrl was
finally decided, greatly in England's favour, in 1S99.

Honduras. — " Her Majesty's Settlement in the Bay of
Honduras " owes its origin to the log-wood cutters who
frequented the coasts of Central America, ^he settlements
which sprang up were the scene of frequent contests with the
Spaniards, and resulted in a Convention by which the Spaniards,
while not ceding the territory to Britain, granted certain
rights of trading and settlement and certain tracts of territory
to the British. In 1798, the two nations being at war, a
determined attempt was made by the Spaniards to dislodge the
British, and the repulse of this has been considered as virtually
an act of conquest. At any rate, the country is now governed
fto a Crown Colony,

152 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

SECTION II.— SINCE 1858.

With the exception of Jamaica, there is little in the recent
history of the British West Indies worth noting. The annals
of Barbadoes, Antigua, Trinidad, etc., consist of adminis-
trative re-adjustments (steam and telegraphic communication
with Great Britain), slight alterations in mercantile activity,
sporadic railway development, and incipient education.

Jamaica. — After the troubles of 1834, Jamaica was tranquil,
though somewhat unprogressive, and, indeed, out of joint.
Many of the higher classes left the island. The legislature
was at variance with itself. There was a want of economy
in the public service, and financial deficits followed as a
consequence. The natives had no confidence in the laws
as administered entirely by white men and landlords, who
(they said) were partial and corrupt. The free settlers com-
plained that they were not free, but had to pay heavy imposts,
while, at the same time, their political rights were withheld
from them. Wages were low, and there was something like
a class war between employer and employed. The negroes
demanded free land, impartial justice and political rights ;
while some of them were in favour of expelUng the white
population altogether from the island.

Here were all the materials for a rising, and agitation
fanned the flame. A Mr. Gordon, a popular leader and
magistrate, was deprived of his post, with the result that
indignation meetings were held throughout the island. At
Morant Bay, another agitator, a certain Paul Boyle, was
arrested, upon which an armed party effected a rescue.
The Riot Act was read and the volunteers called out. But
the rioters multiplied, and became fiercer and fiercer ; they
attacked and captured the court-house, when about eighteen
persons were killed and thirty wounded. The jails were then

TUE BRITISH IN TUE AVEST INDIES. Ifj^

broken into and stores were sacked. The rebels advanced
inland, attackinL; the plantations and killing the white people.
Mr. Edward John Eyre was at this time Governor of Jamaica.
He proclaimed martial law in Morant Bay and district, and
encircled the place with troops. Many of the insurgents
were thus captured, and great severities followed. Four
hundred and thirty-nine persons fell victims to summary
punishment. A thousand rebel dweUings were burnt down.
Six hundred men and women were flogged, many of them
very brutally'. Gordon was arrested at Kingston — where
martial law did not prevail — and, being taken to Morant
Bay, he was tried by court martial and executed. These
pi'oceedings produced much excitement and indignation in
England, and Mr. J. S. Niell and a "Jamaica Committee"
charged Governor Ej-re with exceeding his powers and
inflicting needless cruelty. A parliamentax'y commission was
appointed, which, in its report, praised Mr. Eyre for his
promptitude and vigour, but declared that he had maintained
martial law unnecessarily long, that the floggings were reckless,
and other punishments excessive, and some barbarous, and
that Gordon was illegally executed. On this report pro-
ceedings were commenced against E^-re ; but the case dragged
on for years, and at length the grand jury threw out the
bill. In 1872, Parliament decided to pay Mr. Eyre's expenses,
and the matter dropped.

In 1866, the Jamaica constitution was suppressed, and the
island was made a Crown colony. Manj' desirable reforms
have since been efifected, and the negroes, and indeed the
whole colony, are now fairly prosperous. There are some
800,000 or 900,000 acres under cultivation, including 31,000
acres of sugar-cane, 62,000 acres of banana-farms, 25,000
under coffee plantation, and 10,000 under cocoa-nut. The
population is about 830,000, of whom about 500,000 are
negroes, about 10,000 whites, and the rest half-castes.

154 BKIXISH DOMINIONS BEYOND TUE 6EAS.

CHAPTER VL

Australasia.

SECTION I.— BEFORE 1858.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable facts in the history of
British colonisation is offered by the development of Australia.
Anyone who, a hundred years ago had had the temerity to
prophesy that there should arise in the southern seas a New
England, comparable in extent and in prosperity to that which
the folly of her legislators had recently lost to the home
country, and, moreover, that this should grow up from the
very dregs of the population which, for safety and convenience,
the old country had been compelled to cast out from her
midst, would have been looked upon as a visionary if not a
madman quite.

The island of Australia, chief of a group which appears, at
some remote period, to have formed the upland of a vast
continent, the greater part of which has, as a result of volcanic
action, been submerged, seems to have been first sighted by
those daring explorers of the fifteenth and sixteenth, centuries
— the Portuguese. Then the Dutch, always on the look out
for fresh openings for their commerce, visited it, sailing
southward from their Malayan possessions. French sailors,
too, coasted its northern shores, leaving their names upon its
map as mementos of their visits. It was not, however,
mitil 1770, that any attempt was made to systematically
explore New Holland, as the eai'ly Dutch navigators had

AUSTRALASIA. 165

patriotically termed the island continent. In t!iat year, tL«
intrepid navigator, Captain Cook, sailed down its eastern
coast, giving English names to its capes and bays. Struck Ijy
the similarity of its shores on the south-cast to those hilly
coasts of Wales, which border upon the Bristol Charmel, Cook
termed the district New South Wales. His survey was by no
means an accurate one, for he passed unnoticed the magnificent
harbour of Port Jackson, probably the finest in the world.
At this period the American War had deprived England of tlie
menus of disposing of her convicted criminals by sending them
into slavery in the plantations of the Carolinas, and the
government was in a quandary as to how the difficulty might
best be met. The discoveries of Cook had revived an old
project of colonising Australia, a proposal which had remained
in abeyance pending the settlement of the war in America
and on the continent. With its conclusion, the notion was
revived, and Cook's advice sought as to the best situation for a
penal settlement. He gave as his choice Botany Ba\ — a place
which had probably little in its favour beyond the profusion
of vegetation found there and from wMch its name was
derived. To Botany Bay, therefore, the first consiL^nment of
convicts was despatched in 1787. There were in all i»6i} mules
and 192 females, of whom thirty-two died during the voyage.
In charge of the draft were 208 soldiers, and these were
accompanied by sixty-five women and children. Captain
Phillip, who was in command, however, rejected Botany Bay as
the site of his settlement, in favour of Port Jackson, on whose
shores he founded the little convict station
Port Jackson. ^j Sydney, so-called after the coloniiU
secretary under whose direction the party had been sent out.
The prisoners were to provide for their own sustenance by tlie
cultivation of the soil in the same way as in the American
plantations, save that here they were working for their own
liveliiiood only and not for the benelit of a purchaser.

156 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

The soil was, however, by no means of the most fertile
description, and in 1791 a more suitable spot for a farm
was chosen at Paramatta. At the expiration of his time a
convict was given a plot of land and the necessary implements
of culture, thus becoming a proprietor in his own right. In after
years many of these emancipated convicts grew wealthy from
the resiilts of their labour, and their number was augmented
by the immigration of free settlers. Then the government
farms were discontinued, and the convicts, as they arrived, were,
if well behaved, distributed among the private farmers, or, if
refractory, set to work in " chain-gangs " on the public roads.

The early history of the settlement is by no means a
pleasing one. The practice of shipping off men and women,
the majority of whom had no knowledge of farming and no
settled habits of industry, to a coast where the natural means
of subsistence were few and a livelihood was dependent upon
the precarious produce of the soil, was likely to be productive
of considerable misery. A poor summer reduced the unhappy
populace to the point of starvation, half rations were common ;
now and again, indeed, they were reduced to subsist upon
pounded grass and the flesh of wild dogs. Meanwhile, fresh
cargoes of convicts kept arriving. The moral tone of the settle-
ment, too, was anything but satisfactory. The governor was
compelled to employ the services of the worst of the rufl&ana
aanong the convicts to keep the rest in order. The presence of
the troops sent out by the government proved a fresh source
of disorder. They claimed, and obtained, from the government
the monopoly of the supply of rum to the colony, and this
beverage became, ere long, the principal article of importation.
It was not merely a beverage, it became the current medium of
exchange. The bottle of rum was the unit of mercantile
value, and it is recorded that an ofhcer of the 10'2nd regiment
bought with a hogshead of the stuff a hundred acres of land,
which he distributed in half- acre grants among his men. Half

AUSTRALASIA. lr)7

this plot fetched no less than ^£20,000, when put up to auction,
some sevent}' years later.

The reformation bec^ns witli the expulsion of the governor,
Captain Blyth, by the better class of the colonists, and the
advent in his stead of Governor Macquarie. He set out with
the fixed idea that the best way of reforming the convicts w as
to in;Uve them free men with a stake in the country at the
earliest possible moment. Pursuing this view, he endeavoured
to cultivate the industries of the colony, employing all those who
had been trained in handicrafts, rebuilding the town of Sydney,
and extending the boundaries of the colony in every direction.
His rule lasted for eleven years and left deep and permanent
results. " He found a garrison and a gaol, and left the broiul
and deep foundations of an empire."

Others, at home and abroad, joined in the good work.
Not the least prominent among these were the freed convicts,
the " emancipists," many of whom now showed themselves
men of high character and great ability. Favourable reports
of the colony reached home, and the circulation of the news
that the convict station was rapidly becoming a free colony
in which honest industry had much to gain, brought out a
steady and ever-increasing stream of EngLsh and Scotch
settlers, the resources of the colony were more and more
rapidly developed, and its surrounding farm settlements pushed
more and more deeply into the country. Macquarie returned
in 1822, leaving behind him a colony' four times as populous
and twenty times as great as that which he had found in 1811.

The growth of the colony inland, led to the discovery of the

magnificent pasture lands lying beyond the Blue Mountains.

Macquarie began a sheep road leading thither. Long before

its completion, however, settlers had driven

- . their flocks toward the downs, to find that

Squatters. '

they throve better and produced finer fleeccu
there than in any other spot in the world. Macarthur, one of

158 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

the leading colonists, and formerly an officer in the New South
Wales corps, made exhaustive experiments as to the effect of
the climate and pasturage upon the character of the wool, and
concluded that the future of the colony lay in its sheep farms,
and that its staple export would be wool. Proceeding to
England, he laid the results of his experiments before the
government.

His Majesty George III., as a special favour, granted him a
small flock of the Spanish merino sheep, then only procurable
by royal favour, since it was death to export them from
Spain, and the Privy Council granted him a vast tract of land.
Soon the merino breed was well established in the coimtry,
and others were brought from England, India and the Cape, all
with the most surprising success. The beneficial effects of the
climate can hardly be over-rated. Bad fleeces were made good,
good ones better, and the " wool-gathering " theories, as people
had contemptuously styled Macarthur's plans, began to find
the fullest realisation. Sheep farming rapidly became the chief
industry of the colony, and sheep farmers spread with their
flocks over immense areas in the interior of the country.
They were termed " squatters," from their habit of settling
wherever they could find pasture, and secured their runs by the
payment of a smaU quit rent to the government.

In 1807, Australia exported 245 lbs. of wool ; in 1834, when
Macarthur died, no less than 2,246,933 lbs. were sent to
England. Five years later and this was trebled, the value to
Australia of the output totaUing nearly half a million sterling.
Kor did England fail to benefit, for the introduction of the
fine Australian wool gave a vast stimulus to the woollen
industry.

The success which had attended the settlement of Sydney,
naturally led to the exploration of the remainder of the
continent. Expeditions with this object, had been sent out by
Captain Phillips in the earliest days of the colony, but little had

AUSTRALASIA. 159

accrued from them. In 17'J"', two young olBcers of the Reliance,
Bass, a surgeon, and Flindi-rs, a midshipman, determined upon
that series of investigations which has i)l;iccd their names on
the roll of fame as the heroes of Australian discovery. In a
boat, eight feet long, and appropriately named the Tom Thumb,
they succeeded durijig the next two years in thoroughly explor-
ing the coast round Sydney. Then the

_ y^* fiune and value of their exploits led to

Explorers. '

their obtaining facilities for more ambitious

efTorts. In larger boats and over greater areas they pursued
their work, exploring in 1798, the coast of Tasmania, until then
deemed part of the continent. This was their last voyage
together, for, in the same year, Bass, returning on a visit to
England was lost at sea. Flinders continued his work, and in
1801 and 1802 sailed in the Investigator, round the southern
coast to the Great Australian Bight, and then, retracing his
path, started in a fresh direction and with characteristic
care mapped out the northern coast, spending a hmidred and
five days in surveying the shores of Carpentaria Bay. Oth. r
expeditions followed, but the end was a tragic one. He set out
for England with the charts of his discoveries, but, calling at
Mauritius, was held prisoner by the French. Here his charts were
tal<en from him and the credit for the discoveries mapped upon
them, claimed for the French explorer. Captain 15audin. When
he reached England, he foimd it impossible to obtain credence
for his exploits, and determined to gain justice by the publica-
tion of his journals. He succeeded in arranging them
for the press, but died on the very day which saw the
completion of his task. In 1813, a pass was found across the
i;lue Moimtains, hitherto deemed insurmountable, and journey-
ing by this route. Governor Macquarie and liis lady Liid the
fonndatioiiB of the town of Ballmrst. The road now forms the
great western highway of the colony. From this time the work
of exploration has proceeded apace, though with results Imrdlv

160 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

eommensnratc with the efforts of the explorers and the dangers
braved by them. Among the chief of the gallant bands that
have braved the perQs of a desert land, where water was
scarcely ever to be depended upon and nature afforded little
for the sustenance of the travellers, are the names of Oxley,
Eyre, Stm-t, Leichhardt, and Sir George Grey, whose journeys,
if devoid of striking incident, exhibit a patient endurance
rarely equalled. Sturt showed conclusively that the interior
did not, as had been imagined, consist of a vast inland lake,
and discovered the river, which he named after the governor
of New South Wales — the Darling — tracing its com-se to its
confluence with the Miurray. Mitchell discovered the area,
now forming part of Victoria, which from its beauty and
fertility he named Australia Felix, and to his surprise found
it already settled by two groups of colonists from Tasmania,
who had, in foundmg Port I'luUip, laid the foundations of a
colony afterwards to become one of the wealthiest of all the
Australian settlements.

Australian Exploration.— The history of Australian exploration
has been a tragic one. Some few instances may afiord an idea of
the perils to be braved in the land of " Syinifex and Sand." Eyre
left Adelaide and a year later reached King George's Sound in
Western Australia with a single native boy, the sole survivor of a
numerous retinue. His provisions had given oat, his horses died for
want of water, his followers deserted or died from hunger or thirst.
Sir George (then Lieutenant) Grey met with equal hardships and
endured similar privatious, while having to contend auainst con-
tinual attacks on the part of the natives. Leichhardt, who, in 184G,
Started with six whitt- men, two natives, fifty bullocks, thirteeen
moles, twelve horses, and two hundred and seventy goats, has
never since been heard of. No traces even of his party have been
found by the many expeditions which have gone in search of it,
and its total disappearance forms one of the great mysteries of
Australian exploration. Of Kennedy's party of twelve men three
only survived the privations of the journey and tbe attacks of the
natives.

ACSTRALASIA. 161

One of the most curious of the diBCOveries oouuccted with the
early st'ttlciuont of Victoria was (he discovery of an Ens'li.shman—
William Buckley — a convict who had escaped from durance and
lived for thirty years among the aboriRinoa, wliose lang^uago ho had
ac(iuired and by wlioni he was treated with all the consideration
due to a chief of their own race. Indee<l, for a long time the idea
seems to have prevailed among the natives that the whiles were
their departed friends retumcl to life.

Victoria.— The Discovery of Gold The new settk-iiK-nt

grew with rapid strides, forming at lirst part of New South
Wales, whose governor, Sir Richard Bourke, personally
superintended the lajdng out of the towns of Melbourne and
Geelong. The rapidity of the growth may be gauged from the
fact that land which fetched ^1(30 per acre in 1837 sold two
years later for j910,000 per acre, while twelve years later still
it fetched close upon £80,000 per acre. By the month of
March the population of Port Phillip district had risen to
77,345, of whom 22,143 were collected in the town of Mel-
bourne, which in 1838 consisted of a few huts embowered in
the trees and presenting the appearance of an Indian village.

In the year 1851, wool ceased to be the staple of Australian
commerce. That year is a memorable one in the historj- of
Victoria for two things. It was the date of its birth as a
separate colony ; it was the year of the discovery of gold. The
gold was first found near Bathurst, in New South ^Yales, but
shortly after the richest gold field the world has yet seen was
discovered at Ballarat in Victoria, and immediately the world
was startled by the discovery of a new El Dorado.

Stray rumours of the presence of gold in Australia had pre-
viously been current. In 1830, a convict produced a nui,'i:;et,
which he stated that he had found in the interior. He failed,
howe%er, to point out the place, and it was

_ concluded that he had stolen a watch,

Fever. '

melted the case, and adopted this ingenious
method of getting rid of his plunder. His reward was a hundred

162 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

and fifty lashes. In 1839, traces of gold were discovered
by Connt Strzelecki, an eminent scientist, who also pointed
to indications of its wide distribution. The authorities, how-
ever, feared the effect of the announcement on the criminal
population, and the discoverer consented to keep his secret.
Some ten years later a Mr. Hargreaves, an old Call-
fornian miner, was struck with the similarity of the geological
formations round Bathurst and those of the gold-bearing
districts of California. As a result he began prospecting, and
in May, 1851, announced his success. There was an immediate
rush of adventurers to the spot, while prospectors in other
parts of the colonies carried on their researches with feverish
vigour. In September all previous finds were eclipsed by the
great discovery at Ballarat. Then ensued a veritable exodus
from the towns, the streets were deserted, rents fell to vanish-
ing point, property became a drug in the market. All forma
of business were arrested. Ships that had brought cargoes
of emigrants lay deserted and rotting in the harbour. Men of all
classes forsook their vocations to try their fortune on the gold
fields. On the field itself the scene beggars description. There
were gathered the scum of the earth. Wealth, easily acquired,
was as quickly dissipated in riot and excess. For some months,
too, it was impossible to organise a pohce sufficiently
powerful to cope with the lawless crew that flocked to the
diggings, deeply smitten with the gold fever and recking
nothing of the means they employed, provided only that the
precious metal were secured. The terrible scenes which might
be witnessed in the towns nearest the diggings, when the
fortimate miners came up to dissipate their earnings, were of a
nature to cause sober citizens almost to wish that there had
been no great discovery of gold at all.

The effect on the population of Victoria was wonderful. In
the three years from 1851 to 1854 it had risen from 77,345 to
236,776, by 1857 to 410,766. The effect on the prosperity of

AUSTRALASIA. 168

the colony was even greater. The output of gold from Victoria
in the year 1854 amounted to the vast sum of £12,600,000.
The production of this vast amount of wealth could not fail to
benefit the colonies in many ways. Manufactures of all kinds
throve, while in the back districts the squatters still reared
their flocks and produced yearly immense quantities of wool.
At this time more than half the population
the Colony. derived their livelihood, directly or in-
directly, from the gold fields. Great dis-
content, however, prevailed among the diggers, largely as
a result of the fee demanded by the government for a
license. This culminated in an outbreak — the Ballarat riot —
which reqviired a force of regulars to be sent up from
Melbourne to quell. The rioters had thrown up earthworks
and built a stockade on a hill near the diggings. This was
stormed by the poHce, not without considerable loss of life
on both sides, and the rising csune to an end.

By this time, however, the Australian Colonies Act had
been passed by the British Parliament, giving the colonies
permission to choose the form that their permanent constitu-
tions should take. The democratic spirit
Coionles"AcT, 1881. ^^^ ^ Victoria boldly claimed an elective
Upper House, a Lower House, elected for
three years and con!>tituted on the principles of the secrecy of
the ballot, the abolition of the property qualification, equal
electoral districts and manhood sullrage. In 1855, the new
constitution was drawn up on this basis, and, under it, the
importance of the colony has continued steadily to increase.

In all the Australian colonics the parlian-.c-.itary members aro
paid— j£300 a year in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland ;
X'200 a year in South Australia and West Australia; and i'lOO a year
in Tasmania. They mostly protect themselves also (even against
each other) by dnties on imports.

164: BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

South Australia.— The early explorers of the district known
as South Australia, furnished anything but a favourable report
as to its suitability for purposes of settlement. " It is barren
and in every respect useless and unfavourable for colonisation,"
said Captain King, a colleague of Flinders, in 1822. Seven
years later, in 1829, Sturt explored the district with very
different results. " Rich soil, fine pasturage, and last, but
most important in Australia, with its ever-present dread of
drought, ample supplies of fresh water," all united to make the
district one of singular promise to the intending settler. The
colony was settled from England direct at
Svstem 1835 *^^ instance of a Mr. Wakefield, who noting
the abuses which prevailed in the older
Australian colonies, thought to prevent them by selling the
Ismd at the highest possible price, instead of makmg, as had
been the practice, free grants to intending settlers. In this
way, he hoped to found a society more on the lines of that of
the old country, and to attract the labourer by the promise of
higher wages than could be obtained elsewhere. The scheme
was really one for secm-ing the advantages of the colony to the
non-labouring classes, and was economically unsound. Never-
theless it found ready support with the result that there arose
an Austrahan " land-bubble," in which land-jobbers and
money-lenders made fortunes, while the emigrants who bought
lots found themselves deluded. The labourers, whom the
prospect of high wages had tempted to the colony, now
deserted it, as did also those of the capitalists \vho had any-
thing left from the wreck of their hopes and fortunes.

"Persons who had gone out with land-orders and means for
rendering their agricultural speculations profitable, had fallen into
land speculations after the sale of town allotments, or engaged in
building operations at a high cost in the capital, and so brought them-
selYes to a standstill. Labourers who ought to have been dispersed
over the country were congregated in the capital, demanding and
receiving, as long as the money lasted, hi;,'h wages for works thai

AL'STKALASIA. 165

could not be remanerative to those who constructed them. The (rne
objects of colonisation had been lost git'bt of in the whirl of spocula-
tive excitement; and when the funds, brought into the colony for
legitimate eniiiloyraunt, had been nearly all sent away for the
purchase of ijrovisions, and hundreds of tons of flour had been
imported at from £B0 to i'lOO per ton, which should have been pro-
duced on t)ie spot for £15 to £20, the prospect of a general collapM
•I^peared inevitable." — Forster ("South Australia").

The measures adopted by the governor to alleviate the evil
served only to increase the difficulty. With his colony
bankrupt, and its inhabitants starving, and with fresh shiploads
of ersigrants continually arriving, he provided emplojonent by
commencing great pubhc works. But these were unauthorised
by the Home government which repudiated its hability.
A loan from England tided over the difficulty, and Sir George
Grey was despatched with strict mstructions to pursue a poUcy
of economy and retrenchment. His instructions were faithfully
carried out, the depression died away and the vast resoiurcea
of the colony were rapidly developed. It was found to
contain the best of the corn land and so became a gi-cat
source of food supply, not only for Europe but for tlie
whole island. Wool, too, as in other parts of the island,
became a valuable export. But, as in Victoria, the discovery
of mmeral wealth was to pave the way to rapid development.
In this case the mineral was copper. In 1S42, veins of rich
ore were found at Kapunda, and three years later a shepherd
discovered the famous Burra-Burra mines, some forty miles
further to the north. Here, rich ore lay so near the surface
that it could almost be raised by hand, while even the lower
levels co'Jd be worked with singular ease and at but httle cost.
Marvellous stories were told of the wealth which accrued.
One lucky proprietor is said, after three years of work, with
an original capital of £iJOO, to have netted a yearly income of
j911,000. The wealth of the colony increased by leaps and
bounds, its population grew in equal proportion and a thriving

166 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

town sprang up in the vicinity of the mines. In 1850, the
population of the colony totalled 63,700, treble what it had
been in 1845, and the value of the exports exceeded half a
million sterling per annum. The discovery of gold in the
neighbouring colony of Victoria brought, however, a time of
stress for South Australia. There was a rush for the gold
fields that threatened at one time to depopulate the colony.
Within twelve months, more than 16,000 persons, a fourth
of the whole population and the bulk of its most useful
and industrious inhabitants, had passed into Victoria. The
exodus was, fortunately, only temporary. The rush gradually
ceased, the discovery of gold in small quantities at home
induced many to return, the vast increase in the population of
Victoria increased the demand for those food stuffs which
South AustraUa was so fitted to supply, the difficulty brought
about by the sudden depression in trade was gradually over-
come and the colony continued to develop on the old lines
and with even greater rapidity than before. Under the Colonies
Act, the form of government chosen was similar to that of
Victoria and the constitution was based, in 1856, on two
houses of representatives, both being elective. The inhabitants,
thus endowed with the full rights of self-government, have
continued to progress and South Australia has shown itself
among the most enterprising of all the Australian colonies.

" A remarkable development of patient and ijaiiistaking industry
is perceptible over the whole colony. Its resources may not bear
comparison with those of some of its richer neighbours, but,
whatever those resources may be, they are certainly in coarse of
development in a very intelligent manner. It is l';ngland in miniature,
England without its poverty, without its monstrous anomalies of
individual extravagances thrown into unnecessary and indecent
relief by abounding destitution. It is England with a finer climate,
with a virgin soil, with more liberal institutions and wiiU a happier
people." — FoiiSTF. u.

AUSTRALASIA. 167

Western Australia.— The Swan river, around which cluhters
most of the industrial life of Western Australia, was first
explored by the Dutchman Vlaming in 1697. In 1829, Captain
Freemantle went to take formal possession in the name of
the British Cro%vn, and, in the same year, a band of emigrants
with horses, cows, pigs and sheep arrived to settle the country.

Other consignments rapidly followed, and the district was
colonised before it liad been sufficiently explored to determine
whether the character of the covmtry was such as to render it
suitable for the piurposes of emigration. Great misery ensued
upon this undue haste. The district was practically barren, and
the only land at all suitable for tillage, was claimed by those in
charge of the expedition. Moreover, the natives were fierce
and powerful, and showed themselves inclined to resent the
invasion of their territory. Thus, though one of the oldest
settlements in point of date in the island. Western Australia or
the Swan River Settlement as it was first called, is still the
most backward in point of development. Tlie early settlers,
disappointed in the hopes which had been founded on the
glowing accounts given of the other colonies, gradually
mip:rated to these, and by the year 1850, when the remaiuuig
colonies were on the high road to prosperity, Western Australia
seemed bordering on extinction. As a last resource, it waa
determined to introduce into this colony the convict labour
from which the others now clamoured to be freed, and, in the
next ten years, some ten thousand convicts were sent over.
As a natural result, the convict elemtnt speedily predominated
in the population, until the whole district resembled rather a
prison than a settlement. This proved a source of annoyance
to the other colonies, which were by this time making strenuous
efforts to free themselves from the stigma attacliing to a
criminal population, and they displayed deep resentment at
their neighbour's policy, which resulted in large numbers of
escaped convicts finding their way eastward.

16y BRITISH DOMINIOXS BEYOND THE SEAS.

The exportation of convicts to Western Australia ceased in
1868, owing to the vigorous representations made by the other
colonies to the home government.

Tasmania. — This island, first known as Van Diemen's Land,
was, at the time of the first settlement at Sydney, con-
sidered to be a part of the mainland, and the colony of New
South Wales was declared to extend from Cape York upon the
north to South Cape, the southernmost extremity of that
island. The explorations of Bass and Flinders, however, soon
determined its real character, and the vast tract of laud which
had been included under the name of New South Wales
was afterwards divided into sections. The first of these to
be detached was the island of Van Diemen's Land, which was
parted off in 1825. The new colony was used originally, like
its parent, as a convict settlement, but hardly with such
good results. The aborigines proved to be both powerful
and quarrelsome, and soon cajne into eoUision with the
Europeans who had thus invaded their country. Convicts
and soldiers had, in self-defence, to unite in a war of utter
extermination against the natives, which endured for almost
sixty years. When, however, in 1836, Tasnaania was made
an independent colony under Sir George Arthur as governor,
its prospects began to revive. Among the disadvantages with
which the settlers had to contend, at this time, was the
presence of gangs of bushrangers, for the most part escaped
convicts of the worst type ; men who did not shrink from
the most fearful crimes. Some of the worst of them, indeed,
were said to have added cannibalism to the hst of their
iniquities. The military present in the island were numerically
insufficient for the work they had to perform, and the police
force was not organised on an effective basis. The governor's
hands were full, but he set himself to the task with a will.
Hobart Town and Launceston, from mere convict settlements,
gradually became important towns, and commerce and civilisa-

AUSTRALASIA. 109

tion spread apace. The quiet being thus restoreil, free settlers
came trooping into the island in increasing numbers and aided
that ele^■ation of its moral tone which the good work of the
governor was bringing about. In 18')6, when, like the remain-
ing cokmies, it had to make choice of the form of government
which it considered most suited to its needs, it became a
separate colony, with houses of representatives and all the
machinery of popiUar govemniont. At the same time its
name was changed to Tasmania, the old name having become
inipopidar from its association with the convicts who were its
first settlers, and ^ith whose crimes the name Van Dieman's
Land was too reminiscent.

New Zealand. — The history of New Zealand is closely
connected with that of New South "Wales. Tasman first dis-
covered the group, and is responsible for its name. "William
Dampier, one of the most famous of Enj;;lish explorers, who
had begun life as a buccaneer in the Spanish Main, was the
first Englishman to visit it. Nothing memorable, however,
was done mitil the time of the famous Captain Cook, who, in
his first knd greatest voyage, in 1769, visited the islands and
endeavoured, though fruitlessly, to establish friendly relations
with the natives. His attempts, which were perhaps marked
by too great rashness, combined with too great distrust of the
natives, ended almost invariably in bloodslied.

It is unfortunate that the first EngHshman to have serious
relations with the Maories" should have begun a strife between
tlie two races which has continued tdl recent times, and pro-
duced much misery and provoked much ill-feeling on both
sides. The feeling of hatred to the whites was greatly
intensified by the ^•isit of De Surville, a French navigator, who
reached New Zealand at the same time, and treated its natives
with gross cruelty. Du Fresne, another Frenchman, further
<;ouLii'uuted to the list of grievances treasured up by the Xluoriea

170 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS,

against the whiles, by his deaJings with them four years later.
Subsequent navigators carried on an irregular intercourse, more
or less friendly, but, generally speaking the relations between
the Maories and their civilised visitors have been hostUe,
merging every now and then, into a war of extermination, waged
with the utmost determination, and under circumstances of
the greatest cruelty on both sides. Murder succeeded murder
and massacre followed massacre, with the view, on the part of
the EngUsh, of exterminating a race of cannibals unrivalled in
their ferocity ; and, on the part of the savages, with the desire
of revenging the death of their friends, and the hope of obtain-
ing by plmider those articles which tlieir intercourse with the
whites had led them to covet. The credit for the amelioration
of this state of affairs is largely due to Samuel Marsden, then a
missionary at Port Jackson, where he had opportunities
of becoming acquainted with such of the Maories as were
induced from time to time to leave the island on a visit to that
settlement. With these he established, by degrees, the most
friendly relations, finding that the savages were as readily
susceptible to kindness as they were resentful of injury. By
his influence, the Church Missionary Society was led, in 1814, to
organise a body of missionaries for the conversion of the
Maories, attempting, at the same time, to introduce among
them the arts of civilisation. Whaling vessels bound to the
fishing grounds of the South Pacific estabHshed stations on the
islands, various native chiefs visited the neighbouring AustraUan
colonies, and one of the most important was even -brought to
consent to a voyage to England. Europeans gradually settled
on the sea-coasts, and their stations became centres of trade
among the natives, who were brought more and more within
European influence. Various settlements were formed, the
chief being at Wellington, Auckland and Nelson. Until 1841,
the New Zealand settlements were all subject to the govern-
ment of New South Wales, but in that year the three islands

AOSTEALASIA. 171

were I'ormed into a separate colony, with the growing to\vn ot
Auckland for its capital. The troubles with the natives, how-
ever, still continued. Some of the more far-seeing, or perhaps
the more ferocious, of their chiefs, proposed the extermination
of all the settlers — missionaries, as well as traders — foreseeing
that intercourse with the white man must necessarily end
in the gradual decline of their race, already beginning, witli
fatal readiness, to adopt the worst vices of civilisation in
addition to those characteristic of the savage state.

It is more than probable that the merchants and traders
engaged in the New Zealand trade, were not scrupulously
honest in their dealings with the natives. Be that as it may,
the trading was marked by constant disputes, and aroused the
keenest Ul-will between the parties engaged. In addition to this,
the products brought into the country were
Pahekai. often of such a nature as to tend to tte

demoralisation of the savages and the quarrels
which broke out between the traders — the Pahekas, as they
were called by the aborigines — and the native population
are, at least, comprehensible. AxQong the worst features
of the traffic was the trade in rum, the taste for which spread
among the natives with all the rapidity of an epidemic, and
with all its disastrous effects. The introduction of fire arms
too, gave a deadly impulse to the feuds perpetually raging
among the native tribes, and lent an added danger to their
intercourse with the whites.

To such an extent did the vicious part of the trading
community minister to the evil passions of the people, that
these were speedily inflamed to such a pitcli as bid fair, at no
distant date, to lead to the total extinction of the aborigines, a
prey to the unfettered license which prevailed.

" The unfortunate natives o( New Zealand, unless some decisive
measures o( prevention be adopted, will, I foar, be bUorlly added U>
the number of those barbarous tribes who, in dilTerent parts of the

172 BRITISH DOJIIXIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

globe, have fallen a sacrifice to their intercoorae with civilised men
who bear and disgrace the name of Christians. When, for mercenary
purposes, the natives of Europe minister to the passions by which
these savages are inflamed against each other and introduce them to
the knowledge of the depraved acts and licentious gratifications of the
most depraved inhabitants of our great cities, the inevitable conse-
quence is a rapid decline of population, preceded by every variety of
suffering." — Viscount Goderich (Colonial Secretary in 1831).

One of the most deplorable of the practices which sprang up was
the trafSc in heads. The New Zealanders had been in the habit
of dyeing and preserving as trophies the heads of their enemies slain
in battle. Some of these having come into the possession of a
trader, were carried to Europe and were secured with such avidity
by curiosity-hunters, that the trade in heads became a flourishing
and lucrative branch of commerce. Prom its nature it was suscep-
tible of the grossest abuses. The available supply of heads ran short
and every means, even to murder, was employed to obtain a fresh
stock. It was possible to bargain for the head of a living man, and
to find it delivered according to the terms of the agreement.

Thus, under the influence of the Pahekas and the mission-
aries the Maories divided into two parties, both having cloaked
their primitive barbarism with a veneer of EngUsh customs ; the
one having imbibed the worst features of civiHsation whUe the
other had profited by the example of the missionaries' peaceable
and useful lives. The latter portion of the native community
has now become sufficiently civilised to take an inteUigent
share in the government of their country and their represen-
tatives sit in. the parliament of the islands, while the former is
rapidly becoming extinct and now proves a source of dangei
to the settler only in isolated districts.

This state of quietude was not achieved without con-
siderable trouble and much ill feeling

„ . ,,, which now and then culminated in open

Haori Wars. t^

rupture. One deplorable instance occurred
in 1843. Disputes were constantly arising with the native chiefs
on the question of the ownership of the land. Colonel Wake-
field, then in command, on one of these cccasione determined

AUSTRALASIA. 173

to force the chiefs iato compliance with his desires and went
to seek them with a band of armed followers, intending to
capture them and bring them in irons to the capital. The
invasion was naturally resented by the natives, and orders
were given to fire upon them. The result was a war between
the British authorities and a confederation of the Maori chiefs.
The English were at first defeated, with great damage to
their prestige and serious loss of life, the blame for which
must be laid at the door of the English governor. As a result
the English had practically to conquer the country. Tribes
that had hitherto been submissive now took up sums, the
outbrealv spread and was not put down untU a vast amount
of dtuuage had been done. The moderation and tact of Sir
George Grey, one of the greatest of its governors, gradually
brought about a pacification, although some of the more warlike
of the tribes fled to mountsdn fastnesses, where they secured
themselves against attack and maintained a guerilla warfare for
some five years after the outbreak. The peace then established
was apparently final. The natives, where under good influence,
showed themselves iotelligent, desirous of improvement and
apt to learn. The habits of civihsation seem, however, to
enervate them and the life of cities graduaUy to sap the
strength of a people fitted only for the tree life of the woods,
so that the Maori, who has [prolited by the lessons of civilisa-
tion, bids fair to die out even more rapidly than his brotlier
who has refused any dealings with either missionarioB or
traders, and preferred remaining in a state of savagery to
accepting the benefits oflfered by the white man.

The sovereignty of the islands passed into the hands of Great
Britain by the treaty of Waitangi in 1R40, the chiefs being secured
in the possession of their lands and forests as long as they desired to
retain them.

174 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEA3.

SECTION II.— SINCE 1858.

Australia. — The history of the Australian Colonies for
the last fifty years has been one of almost wholly domestio
interest. Until we come to the Federation of Australia and
the formation of the Commonwealth in 1900-1901, the
problems and agitations have been of local, one might almost
say of parochial, importance. They comprise such matters
as the stoppage of convict transportation from England, the
exploration of the continent, and the extension of the colonies,
the flow of emigration, and the exploitation of mines, the
rise of a labour party, and the consequent occurrence of
strike contests, the building of railways, the formation of
waterworks, state education, vote by ballot, protection of
native industries, etc.

Situated at the antipodes, and isolated from every other
country, threatened and interfered with by no other people,
(with the exception of some Chinese immigrants), Austraha has
had no need of a foreign ministry or a foreign poUcy, but
has been left to pursue her own course and develop her own
resources.

Between 1855 and 1860, the Eastern States — New South
Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia — were
accorded self-government ; while Western Australia received
a constitution in 1890.

The most important series of enactments have been those
relating to the land, the object being to prevent absenteeism
and the mere exploitation of the country by speculators. A
whole crop of legislative measures, dealing with tillage and
stock-rearing, have been passed within the last forty years.

The object of the immigration laws has been to prevent
aliens, especially the Chinese, from flooding the country or

AUSTRALASIA. 175

establishing themselves on the gold-diggings. In the 'sixties,
the scare was such that it expressed itself in serious riots,
and the Chinese were huntfed out of New South Wales. The
trouble has been, to a large extent, removed by the working
out of the mines, and the "Yellow Peril" has now been
reduced to a minimum. Still, in some of the states, there
is a toll on Chinamen, and the number allowed to land each
year is strictly limited.

In Queensland, Kanakas ("boys") have been introduced
from the New Hebrides and other parts of Polynesia, for the
purpose of working the sugar plantations within the tropics.
At one time these Kanakas were kidnapped by planters'
agents, and a great deal of cruelty was employed ; and when,
after three years, they returned to their native islands, they
brought back with them all the vices and none of the virtues
of civilisation.

Strikes and labour troubles have also loomed largely in
Australian life. Convict labour came into collision with that
of the free immigrant; and there was yet
^^^ another class, the tuuc-expired convicts, who

' sought to identify themselves with the latter.
In 1890, the labourers had so extensively
organised themselves by means of trade unions that ihey were
able to bring about what is known as the Great Strike of
Workmen v. Capitalists generally. Sydney was the head-
quarters of the movement, and the disturbances were
sullioiently formidable to necessitate the swearing-in, in large
numbers, of special constables. In November of the same
year the strike came to an end, the capitalists gaining a
decided victory over the labourers.

One of the labour champions, William Lane by name, led
a company of strikers to South America, and^ in Paraguay
established a sort of socialist community (1893). The venture,
however, was hardly more successful than the Darien Scheme

176 BRITISH DOMINIONS BKYOND THE SEAS.

of William III.'s reign. The management of this " New-
Australia" was far from being harmonious, and the contests
and disputes proved as numerous and bitter as they had been
in the parent colony. Many of the settlers returned to
Australia, while others had to be assisted back.

After the Great Strike, the labour party succeeded in
getting itself represented in the New South "Wales parliament,
and soon afterwards in the other provincial parliaments ; but
the whole party soon became divided on the question of
protection, and the introduction of the Caucus system further
reduced its numbers and unity.

In the extension and development of Australia, the chief
results have been the creation of Queensland, the exploration
of the Northern territory (including the laying down of a trans-
continental cable), and the colonisation of West AustraUa.

Queensland was carved out of New South Wales, and

proclaimed a separate colony in 1859. From this time

onward, many exploring parties traversed the

Queens an , „j.gg^^ island, some of them being misinformed

1859. 5 ' o

and ill-judged, and ending in disaster. In
1860, for instance, O'Hara Burke, WUham John WUls and
others, in response to a j62,000 prize offered by New South
Wales, started off from Melbourne in that year to cross the
continent. They succeeded to a certain extent; but, in
returning, their provisions gave out; they suffered terrible
hardships, and seven out of eight died of starvation.^*' A
pubhc funeral was all the recompense that the Colony could
accord them (1863 j.

Two years later, Stuart succeeded in crossing the continent
from north to south, and his explorations led to a new

* The difficulties of Australian travel may be judged from the fact that
Captain Sturt found the thermometer rise to 127=, upon which the mercury
burst the glass. ''Every screw came out of the boxes; the horn handles of
instruments and the combs split up into fine laminae ; the lead dropped out of
the pencils ; the hair stopped growing, and the finger-nails became brittle as
glass."

AUSTRALASIA. 177

distribution of tei'i-itory, and South Australia was extended
so as to include the whole country as far as the northern
coast. In 1870, a telegraph Hue was laid down from soutli
to north along the route opened up by Stuart, and, in 187'2,
tlic formidable work was finished. As a result of explorations
made by Forrest, Giles, and others, a line was laid down
between Adelaide and Albany in 1877, and West Australia
was brought into touch with the more progressive colonie-i.
The only great stretch of territory remaining unexplored was
the country between West Australia and the centre of the
continent, and this region was successfully crossed by
Sir J. Forrest in 1874. "This was the crown and cul-
mination of the history of discovery. . . . Oxley, Cunningliam,
Leichhardt, Mitchell, Sturt, Stuart, Gregory, and Forrest, did
on land what Magellan, Mendana, Torres and Cook did on
sea ; and the landsmen's exploits were as useful, noble, and
perilous as the sea-farers' exploits. Their work, which was
to prepare the way for those who were to come after them,
belonged to that class of work which, if well done, is never
done again. It was finished in 1874; and from that date
the book of heroes closes, and exploration ceases to be a
motive force in history."

Australian Federation. — This great measure, which
became an accomplished fact in 1900, had been spoken
of nearly fifty yeftrs before. There was nothing to prevent
and cverj-thing to encourage an Australian union. There
were no natural barriers to be overcome, such as those
of blood, religion, geographical position, which, in the case
of Canada, presented serious difficulties; and it was only
the late development of the Australian states that pre-
vented an earlier federation. Still, the scheme had been
broached as far back as 1847, when Lord Grey sketched
out a federal plan, which was, however, rejected by the
Australian legislators. The withdrawal of the impcriiil

178 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

troops from Australia and New Zealand in 1870-1871
quickened the natural desire for a defensive union.
Referenda were resorted to, and the result was in favour
of combination. In the 'eighties, a federal council was
formed, to which each of the colonies mi.:lit send members
or not, as it pleased. This body, however, like Convocation
in the mother-country, was only a debating society, and
had no executive power and no financial standing. On
the initiation of Sir Henry Parkes, a conference was held
at Melboiurne. Representatives from the Australian states
drew up resolutions in favour of federation (1889). Two
years later, a national Convention was held at Sydney,
which adopted the previous resolutions almost intact.
These resolutions provided for free trade between the
Australian states, and while handing over to a central
federal government certain defined powers, made provision
that each state should exercise all other powers not so
surrendered. There was not, however, a sufficient momen-
tum of public interest behind these proposals, and the
resolutions fell still-born from the Convention, The move-
ment, however, did not expire, and though another attempt
to discover a modus vivendi was wrecked by the opposition
of New South AVales, the matter was brought to a happy'
termination in 1900. A meeting of the premiers, held at
Melbourne in 1899, managed to allay the misgivings of
New South Wales ; and, all the states being agreed, dele-
gates were appointed to carry the draft Bill to,- England,
for the purpose of obtaining the necessary Imperial legisla-
tion. The British government offered no opposition, and in
1900 an Imperial Act was passed, by virtue of which New
South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, West
Australia and Tasmania were declared to be federated under
the title of the " Commonwealth of Australia," on and after
the 1st Janu^irv, 1901.

AUSTRALASIA. 179

The chief difficulty had been with regard to the rigiit of
appeal, and it was at length agreed that in all purely
Australian matters the appeal should be to the High Court
of Australia : while in non-Australian cases the appeal was
still to be to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
By the original plan only ten or twelve subjects were
surrendered to the federal government for legislation ; in the
scheme as finally adopted this number has been increased
to twenty-nme.

There are two Houses in the Federal Parliament, a
Senate and a House of Representatives. The Senate is
made up of thirty-six members (six being elected by each of
the original states— New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland,
South Australia, West Australia and Tasmania) ; and it
sits for six years. The lower House is twice as large, and
sits for three years. The Governor-General of course
represents the Crown, and his salary is ,£10,000 a year. The
executive power resides in the Governor and a Council of
seven.

Transpoi-tation to Australia had been abolished in 1868.
In 1885, the Australian colonies proffered help to the mother
country in the Soudan war, and in 1899 they sent con-
tingents to South Africa to support the Imperial government
in the Transvaal War.

New Zealand. — It was the unscrupulous manner in which
the New Zealand Company possessed themselves of the
native lands that caused the Maories to rise against the
colonists in the 'forties ; and it was mainly land disputes that
"ave rise to the subsequent Maori wars in the 'sixties and the
'seventies.

The Maories had no central government, and they were not
able to unite or organise themselves into a nation. Moreover,
until their lands were sold to the colonists the Maories could

180 BlilTISH DOMIXION.-; BEYOND TUE SEAS.

not take advantage of English law or politics at all : yet after
such bargain and sales their status was often no better.
" "Whenever land was bought, a re-grant of one-tenth of the
sold land to trustees for the natives was promised ; but in 1862,
178 of these promises — many of them over ten years old — were
outstanding." *

In 1857, the Maories tried to unite then* tribes by electing
a " King " ; and a chief named Te Whero Whero was chosen

in 1858 to wield the sovereign power. After
Maori King. ° ^

his death in 1860, his son Tawhiao was ap-
pointed to succeed. The spirit of unity, however, was not in
the Maori nature, and the title and trappings of roj'alty could
do nothing to bring about cohesion or solidarity. The
monarch was ignored, and the tribal chiefs remained still the
onlj- real power in the Islands. In the ten years' war that
began in 1860, many Maori chiefs — especiallj' in the latter
part of the war — fought on the side of the colonists. The
northern, as well as the southern, portion of the northern
Island was friendly : the hostile tribes occupied the central
districts. Land was again at the bottom of the trouble.

The first war lasted about a year, and was destitute of
important events (1860-1861). In 1861, Su' George Grey became

Governor, and immediately a period of native
Maori Wars.

amelioration commenced. Grey did every-
thing in his power to conciliate the Maories, spending money
on them, meeting them in friendly conference, promoting
education, making roads through the island, tolerating their
" King State," etc. Notwithstanding this, war broke out again
in 1863 with the murdering of eight colonial officers and men.
This war may be said to have ended with the battle of Orakau,
and the occupation by the British of the " liing State."

In 1865, the fires of war were kindled again. The Christian
Maories were expelled from the native districts, and a sect of
* Rogers, Lucas, vol. VI., p. 212.

AUSTRALASIA. IfSl

heretics, nicknamed Hau-llaus, caused fresh disturbances.

These Maori fanatics preached a doctrine compounded of

Judaism and Paganism : they believed themselves to be

invincible, and they advanced against their enemies barking

like dogs. Beheading their prisoners, moreover, they fixed

the heads on staves, and having executed a dance before these

t^raesome objects, they sent them round the island. The

fanaticism thus excited, expressed itself in a further attack on

the missionaries, wiien the Eev. Mr. Volkner was murdered,

and his eyes eateu! (March, 1865). This savagery, however,

failed of its object, for it caused many of the friendly Maories

to rally to the side of the colonists. Thus the war was no

longer national or racial, but civil; or rather it became a

rebellion, in which the best Maori chiefs fought alongside with

the British, while some of the native clans also fought with

each other.

One of the friendly chiefs was a man named Te Kooti,

whose loyalty, however, was not above suspicion. He had

not, perhaps, been judiciously treated ; for,
Te Rooti.

while he was arrested and kept in prison, he

had been promised his liberty at the end of two yeai's. Yet

the two years passed, and he was not liberated. He then

efTected his escape, and, repairing to the east coast, he

committed numerous murders, and attracted a number of

desperadoes to his side. There was nothing national, or even

patriotic, about his rising, and Ropata and several other clan

chiefs sided with the colonials against him, while the " King "

would not even grant him an interview. Thei'e were numer-

ous fights and combats in the struggle, but the only one of

real importance was that of Maraetahi, where, aided by clan

chiefs and native levies, the colonials routed and dispersed

Te Kooti's party.

From this point may be dated the political union of the

islands, and the beginning of their material prosperity.

182 BRITISH DOMIXIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

"Those who pi-ophesied a 'wa- of extermination' wera widely
wi'ong. In ten years, deaths directly caused by war were less than
3,000; in one year (1801) Maori deaths, directly due to measles,
exceeded 4,000. In 1874, the Maories were 45,500, and in the 'forties
possibly 105,000; but war had not made much difference. Thus, the
Puhi clan of the far north had not been at war, and had more than
halved, and those who quoted 105,000 as the figure for the early
•forties, quoted 50,000 as the figure for the late 'fifties. War proved
less deadly than the poisoned cup of peace. Tragedy had slain its
thousands, comedy its tens of thousands."— Rogers, Ibid, p. 226.

In 1877, further land disputes occurred, and in the troubles
that followed great intluence was exercised by Te Whiti, an
enthusiastic Christian Maori, who endeavoured
to carry the teachings of the Sermon on the
Mount into public life. He supported the native claims, but
a,t the same time enjoined honestj-, peace, and industry, and
he took as his motto, "Resist not evil." His teaching, with
regard to laud, was decidedly communistic, and multitudes
flocked to hear him preach. Te Whiti was denounced by
the colonials as a fanatic, the Maori land claims were rudely
pushed aside, and Te Whiti and his friends were arrested
for sedition. This high-handed conduct was condemned by
many, but it proved to be the epilogue of the long war.
Te Whiti even now counselled, not active but passive, resist-
ance, and when, after about sixteen months' impi'isonment,
he was released, the danger of a rising had passed away. An
amnesty was proclaimed, which included Te Kooti, who had
an interview with Mr. Bryce, Colonial native minister (1883).

In 1884, the Maori King paid a visit to London, and was
feted by the Earl of Derby and others. He came to seek
redress for breach of the treaty of Waitangi (1840), and to
petition for native autonomy, native land and law courts, a
native minister, and a more substantial Maori representation.
Autonomy was refused, on the ground that colonial and Maori
interests were mixed and blended in the Islands, and that
the County Councils would answer all the purposes of
autonomy. Certain concessions were subsequently made to

AUSTRALASIA.

183

" Maoriland," and the King, being reconciled, sat in the
Legislative Council.

In 1893, Mr. Ballance, the Prime Minister, died, and was
succeeded by the energetic and influential Richard J. Seddon.

The capital of the Islands had been moved in 18^35 from
Auckland to Wellington. This had been done on tho advice of
New South Wales ; and the Now Zealand government now
further emulated Australian methods by making large loans
for public works, emigration, railways, etc. There was,
however, a good deal of trouble and litigation in the matter of
the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency. Charges
were freely proffered against the directors, the officials, and
the New Zealand government, of bribery and corruption,
issuing misleading balance sheets, etc.

Under Mr. Seddon, New Zealand progressed in a remark-
able way, and a large amount of legislation was initiated
during his long premiership. In 1903, an Act was passed to
provide ^640,000 annually as a contribution towards the
maintenance of the Australian Squadron. Another Act was
passed in the same year according preference to British goods.
In 1904, IMr. Seddon's " Silver Jubilee " as Member of Parlia-
ment was enthusiastically celebrated, by which time he had
been fourteen years a minister, and twelve years Prime
jMinister. In the following year he pronounced New Zealand
(reckoning the wealth per head of the population at ^308) to
be the richest country in the world.

GOVERNORS OF NEW ZEALAND.

1843. Admiral Fitzroy.
1845. Sir George Grey.

1854. Colonal Wynward.

1855. Governor Browne.
1861. Sir George Grev.
1867. Sir George F. Bowen.
1872. Sir James Ferguson.

1 875. Marquis of Normanby.

1879. ^^ir Hercules Robinson.

1880. Sir Arthur H. Gordon.
1883. Sir William Jervois.
1888. Earl of Onslow.
1892. Earl of Glasgow.
1897. Earl of Ranfurly.

1904. Lord Plunkct.

184 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

Tasmania. — Tasmania had received representative govern-
ment in 1853, in which year also the transportation of
convicts to the Island was stopped. Responsible government
was granted in 1856. The able-bodied inhabitants, both
male and femile, had at this time nearly all left the Island
for Victoria, in consequence of the discovery of gold in the
latter colony in 1851, so that Tasmania was for a time
"inhabited by greybeards and children."

In the 'sixties, gold was found in Tasmania itself, and
the out-put soon rose to something considerable. Taking
advantage of the contrariety of seasons, Tasmania now sup-
plies Great Britain with apples in the spring, when that
fruit is very scarce in the mother country. The climate of
Tasmania is eminently healthy, the death rate being only
about 14 per thousand.

Tasmania became one of the States of the Australian
Commonwealth in 1900.

BRITISH RULK IN AIRICA. IbJ

CHAi'TER VII.

British Rule in Africa.

SECTION I.-BEFORE 1858.

The colonisation of the Cape was a natural consequence of
the discovery, by Vasco de Gama, that fclie sea route to India
lay round it. The Dutch were the first to utilise its undoubted
advantages as a place of call for ships on their way to the East
Indies. Its advantages as a place of residence were first noted
in 1648, when a Dutch vessel was wrecked upon its coast and
the crew had perforce to reside there until picked up by a
passing ship, an event which did not occur until some months
had elapsed. The report they made on their return to Holland
induced the Dutch East India Company to despatch thither a
company of emigrants with the view of making it a place of call
for vessels in the India trade, and in 1652, the colony was
attually planted under Jan van Riebeck. The native races,
re luctant to see their land gradually passing into the possession
of the strangers, were nevertheless at first friendly, but as the
colony grew and they found tliemselves forced farther and farther
inland, took, as some measmre of retaliation, to ste;iJing the
cattle of the settlers. This was, to the latter, a vastly di^Yerent
matter from the forcible acquisition of land from the savages,
and the incensed governor made war upon the natives with all
tke limited forces at his command. The contest proved the
forerunner of many others, for from henceforth the Dutch and
the natives were almost constantly at variance. Moreover,
the colonists added to the grievances of the natives by hunting

186 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SKAS.

them for the purpose of using them as slaves. As a natural
result, the native races were driven further and further inland
as the new colony increased in extent and in population.

In 1795, the Cape Colony was assigned to Engl.ind by the
Dutch, the reasou being that Napoleon had invaded and
conquered Holland, and the Prince of Orange was a refugee
in London. The colonists lost no time in expressing their
dissatisfaction with this arrangement, and the relations between
them and the EngUah were soon those of open strife. In
1802, however, the Treaty of Amiens restored the colony to its
original owners, but the European war having revived, it again
passed into the possession of Britain, this time by conquest.
Cape Town surrendered to Sir David Baird in 1806, and from
that year until 1815, the country was under military law, as
much to prevent the inroads of the warlike Kaflir tribes of the
inland districts, as to keep down the turbulent Boer population.
The new government did not commend itself either to its
Dutch or native subjects. In the first place, the law that no
fresh slaves were to be made after 1808, brought it into
direct conflict with the Boers, whUe the Kafl&rs who had, with
good cause, shown themselves the enemies of the Boers, were
treated as though they were the enemies of England also. As
a natural consequence, they speedily became so. In 1809, the
Commissioner, Colonel CoUins, recommended the expulsion of
all the Kafiirs within the border, and the hasty and unjust
measure was duly carried out in ISll, innocent and guilty
being confounded in one sweeping condemnation.

The Kaffir V/ars. — As a result of this measure Soutli Africa
has been from time to time devastated by Kaffir Wars, some
of them on a considerable scale. The first of these occurred
in 1811, when the Kal'lirs, who had been driven !»ack over the
Great Fish Biver, broke over the boundary and carried their
depredations throughout the farms which lay near it. They

BRITISU RnLK IN AKIIICA. 1B7

were, however, easily driven back by Colonel Graham. Tho
next outbreak cajiie as a result of the porennial cattle-liftiii;^
of which the border KalUrs were gviilty. Restitution was
enforced and this lod to a border war, the Kaffirs rallying in
great force and pouring into the colony in the early part of
1S19, carrying everything before their impetuous rush. In
the end, however, they were defeated with great slaughter,
and British troops to the number of four thousand
advanced and took possession of the country l^ong between
Koonap Kat and the Great Fish River, which was added to
British territory, while the district between its northern border
and the Keishamma was declared neutral territory. Later, in
1835, under the governorship of Sir Benjamin Durban, tlic
whole of this tract was armexed in retaliation for another raid,
in which, stmig by the death of one of their chiefs who was
killed in a border skirmish, 10,000 Kaffirs swept across the
frontier, pillaging the homesteads and mmrdering all who dared
resist. This was the greatest of the Kaffir Wars of the first
pai-t of the century, and nine months' fighting was needed to
reduce the country to quietude. The measures of reprisal taken
by the troops, under the command of Colonel Smith, were so
severe as to gain the condemnation of the home government,
at this time bent upon measures of conciliation, a policy which
was distasteful to the majority of the colonists, though laudable
endeavomrs seem to have been made to carry it out.

Thus, as a result of the attitude taken by Lord Gleuelg,
then Secretary of the Colonics, the land seized in 1836 was
restored to the natives, and our relations with them placed
upon a somewhat better footing. Treaties were made with the
principal chiefs, trade was encoiu:aged and their territories
secured. In 1846 there was, however, another outbreak. The
authorities had arbitrarily revoked certain of the treaties, and
cattle-lifting and border-raiding rapidly assumed their old
proportions. The usual invasion of the Kaffir territory followed

188 BRiriSH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SKAS.

and the struggle that ensued was maiutained fitfully until
1853, forming what are known as the fourth and fifth Kaflir
Wars. Fortvme at first lay with the Kafl&rs, various smaJl
bodies of British troops being cut off and defeated with serious
loss. The rising was reduced by the efforts of Sir Harry
Smith and General Cathcart, and the district placed under
martial law. On March 23rd, 1853, the military law was
revoked, and shortly after Kaffraria was made a Crown Colony
under the title of British Kaffraria.

In the year 1820 there arrived at Algoa Bay some five
thousand settlers from Britain, and the founidation of the
eastern settlements was laid.

The Great Trek. — The Boers, the descendants of the original
Dutch colonists, had, ever since the country fell into British
hands, been profoundly dissatisfied with the rule of their new
masters. The nature of their occupation, no less than their
objection to British rule led them not infrequently to " trek "
farther and farther inland in search of fresh pastures and
greater freedom. It was, indeed, by this means that the
colony had grown, and the authorities been brought into
conflict with the natives. In 1834, the act for the emancipation
of slaves came into force throughout the British dominions.
This entailed a very considerable loss to the Boers, the sum —
j61,200,000 — granted the colony in compensation, and of which
barely a tithe is said to have reached the owners of the slaves,
being regarded as absurdly inadequate. The result was
the "Great Trek," of 1835 — 6. More than ten thousand
of the Boers migrated with the whole of their belongings to
the district north of the Orange River, and there founded two
republics, which, as the Orange Free State and the Transvaal,
claimed complete independence of Britain. The claim was
long disputed, but was finally conceded in 1854. A part of the
number crossed the Drakenberg Mountains, and took possession

liUlTIaU KLILE IN AKUICA. iH'J

of the district of Natal, where they maintained a prccarioin
resistance against the formidable Kallir tribes of the south-east.
After many fierce contests with the Amazulu, they wei-e,
however, compelled in 18-12, to seek aid from the Cape Govern-
ment. Troops were sent and the Zulus defeated. Now, how-
ever, tlie Dutch who greatly outnumbered the British popula-
tion, determined to throw off the British supremacy and found
a Dutch Eepubhc on similar lines to that of the Orange Free
State. Troops were sent to quell the rising, and Lu tlie eud^ in
1843, Natal was formally annexed to Great Britain.

The Convict Agitation. — After public opinion in Australia
had compelled the British Government to discontinue the
sending of convicts there, the attention of the authorities, who
had an unusaally large number of prisoners on their hands ir
consequence of the troubles in Ireland, was strongly directed to
the advisability of founding fresh penal settlements abroad. It
was determined to ascertain the feelings of the colonists at the
Cape with regard to the reception of a certain class of convicts.
Before this had been done, however, a shipload, by some error,
had been despatched. On their arrival in Table Bay, the
populace rose in a mass and sought by acts of outrageous
violence to show their disapprobation of the measure, and theif
determination not to submit to the introduction of convicts
The governor, compelled by the force of popular opinion, agreed
not to land the consignment. But this concession, apparently
satisfactory as it was, proved insviflicicnt for the more violent
spirits, who now determined to prevent the ship from obtaining
Bupphes. Finally the difficulty was solved by despatching the
vessel with her cargo of convicts to Van Dieman's Land.

The agitation is, however, worthy of note since it led to th»
inception of a movement to obtain a free represenLati\ c govern-
ment for the colony. The movement bore fruit, when in 1853,
a constitution was established much on the lines of those

190 BRITISH DOillNIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

granted to the Australian colonies, and tlie colony becams
virtually self-governing.

Natal. — Port Natal was entered by Vasco da Gama on
Christmas Day, 1498. Nearly t'vro hundred years elapsed
before it was thought of as a site for a settlement. Then the
Dutch of Cape Colony sent an agent, who succeeded in
purchasing the Bay and the land in its vicinity from its Zulu
owners for merchandise — copper, cutlery and beads — to the
value of 29,000 guilders. Even then the Dutch made no use of
their purchase, and for another hundred years the natives were
undisturbed. In 1823, Lieutenant FairweU succeeded in
winning the regard of Tchaka, the Z\ilu chieftain, and gained
from him the permission to make a settlement. Three thousand
square miles of land were granted him together with several
heads of cattle. Four years later Tchaka was assassinated by
his brother Dingaan, in v/hose eyes the gro-wTng prosperity of
the little colony furnished grounds for serious apprehension.
Fairwell and some of his followers were assassinated while on
a journey, the settlement raided, many of its inhabitants slain
and the remainder compelled to seek safety in flight. In 1835,
another English officer. Captain Gardner, gained permission
from the tyrant to found another settlement at Durban. In
1839, the Boer "trekkers" under Retief, obtained from Dingaan
the cession of the whole territory of Natal. No sooner was the
treaty signed, than a treacherous attempt was made, by the
Zulu chief, to extirpate the Dutch settlers throughout the
length and breadth of the land. The latter, however, with the
assistance of a rebel Zulu chief, Mpanda, the brother of
Dingaan, proved more than a match for their assailants. In
1843, however, the colony was ceded to Britain, a result largely
due to the security to be attained under the British flag,
and since then, wi h but few interruptions, its career has been
one of prosperity. In 1856, it was created into a separate
colony with representative institutions.

BRITISH KULE IN Al'UICA. 191

The West Afrioan Colonies.— These consist of tlie four
colonies of Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Lagos,
aH situated on the coast of North-West Africa between the
moutlis of the rivers Senegfd and Niger. They were originally
trading settlements, and include some of the earliest extensions
of the Empire.

The Colony op Gajihia was founded as early as 1C18, bnt its
early career was one of vicissitude owing largely to the competition
of Euroxiean rivals. It was not formally recognised as British until
the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, and was given no political institu-
tions until 1S07. In 1841 it was formally annexed to Sierra Leone.

The PhNiNsuLA of Sierra Leone was acquired, in 1787, by treaty
with the native chiefs. It was originally intended as a refuge for
liberated negroes from North America and the West Indies. It is
thus a colony in reality, while the others are but trading settlements.
The harbour of Freetown, its capital, is the best in West Africa, a
fact which makes the colony a valuable place of call and coalint:
station on the Ca^c route to India and the K:ist.

Laoos, formerly one of the great centres of the African ^lave
trade, was captured by the English in ISiul, but was not formally
annexed to Britain until 1861. In 1876 it was incorporated with the
Gold Coast Colony, but was formed into a separate Crown colony
in 168G.

The Gold Coast, — This stretches along the coast of the Gulf of
Guinea for about 290 miles, extending inland about 300 miles. The
earliest settlement was made by English traders in 1618. In 1662 a
company was chartered to trade thither, which, in 1672, was in-
corporated with the Royal African Company. The settlement was,
in 1821, transferred to the Crown, and placed under the government
of Sierra Leone, from which it was not finally sepa ated till 1874.

192 BRITISH DOMIMONS I5KV0ND THE SKA3.

SECTION II.— SINCE 1858.

Cape Colony. — There had been some friction between the
government of Cape Colony and the Imperial government. We
have seen that in 1848-1849, both the Dutch and the English
colonists, 3'ouug and old, and of all ranks, trades and per-
suasions, had united against the introduction of convict labour
into the colony, and had carried their point. Again, in 1865,
the annexation of British Kaffraria under strong pressure from
the mother country, led the colonists to think of demanding
more extended powers than those conferred on them in 1853.
In other words, a movement for responsible self-government
was set on foot, and, in 1872, it became an accomplished fact,
when the colonists " took up in the fullest sense the duties ajid
the privileges of a self-governing people." *

For some years after this, the history of Cape Colony is
a record of territoral expansion, and of industrial development,
of the discovery of gold and diamond fields, the construction of
railroads and telegraph systems, and the establishment of
steamer lines between England and the Cape.
In 1865, British Kaffraria was annexed.
In 1871, Griqualand West was annexed.
In 1868, Basutoland was annexed.
In 1874-5, Southern and Northern Kaffraria and Griqualand

East were added.
In 1871, the discovery of the Diamond Mines of Kimberley
and De Beers promised to alter the whole character and
condition of the colony by enormously stimulating emigration
and raising in like proportion the demand for land in the
northern districts.

Lord Carnarvon, who in 1875 was Colonial Secretary, was
bent on federalising South Africa on Canadian lines, and
proposed the measure in a despatch to Sir Henry Barkly,
* Lucas.

— f . <

BRITISH KULK IN Al'UICA. 19<3

Governor of Cape Colony, while at the same time he sent

Mr. Froude to itinerate the country and promote the scheme.

The Cape government, however, standing on its lately acquired

constitutional dignity, declared that any such scheme must

originate within the colony itself. In 1876, Carnarvon, still

full of his federal projects, appointed Sir Bartle Frere

Governor of Cape Colony. Sir Bartle became involved in two

or three native frontier wars ; and before these were settled

Carnarvon had resigned, and the federal policy expired. Sir

Bartle Frere, who was also a High Commissioner for South

Africa, showed great vigour and high statesmanlike qualities,

and during his administration the Transkei, Basutoland and

other territories were annexed. During his regime, too, the

Transvaal was annexed (1877).

In 1880, Frere was succeeded by Sir Hercules Robinson,

under whom Griqualand West was incorporated with Cape

Colony. After the Boer War of 1881, the

The Bund. , , , . ^- ,

Africander Bund (a league or association of

the Cape Dutch to promote their own interests) received a
great acquisition of strength, and became very influential,'-
and regular congresses began to be held. The object of the
Bund was to promote enthusiasm for Dutch nationality, until
the time should be ripe to get rid of the British flag, and
establish South African independence on Dutch lines. It
thus stood to the British government in South Africa some-
what as the Home Kule party in Ireland stand to the
Imperial parliament in England, or the Magyars in Hungary
to the Austrian government in Vienna. The Bund (playing
the part of the Ostrogoths in Italy towards Belisarius, the
Byzantine general) actually offered to take Mr. Cecil Rhodes
for their leader ; but Mr. Rhodes (re-enacting the part played
by the great Belisarius) replied that they "took him either
for a rogue or a fool."

♦ In 190-2, the title of the league was changed to " South African Association."

N

194 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

The Bund at this tune was powerful enough to set up
and pull down ministries. Its leader was Mr. J. H. Hofmeyer,
who represented Stellenbosch in the House of Assembly,
and edited the Volkstein newspaper. At first a friend of
Mr. Cecil Rhodes, he broke with that statesman after the
Jameson raid. He was a man of unquestionable talent, and
his influence over his Dutch countrymen was supreme. At
first, he advocated total separation from England, but later
on he became mediator between the Boers and the Cape
government, and it was through his influence that a peace-
ful solution was arrived at on the Swaziland question.
Obstinately refusing to take office, he preferred to work by
influencing other members of the Assembly ; and hence he
obtained the nickname of the " Mole." Directly or indirectly,
however, from 1881 to 1898, he ruled the Bund caucus.

The leading representative of British opinion in South

Africa in the same period wa,s undoubtedly Mr. Cecil John

Rhodes, to whom reference has alreadv been
Cecil Rhodes. . i , " ^r

made. In a comparatively short career, Mr.

Rhodes developed the highest statesmanlike qualities, and
he stands to South Africa somewhat as Warren Hastings
stands to India. Entering the Assembly in 1880, he first
took office in 1884 as Treasurer-General. In 1890, he became
Prime Minister, and held the Premiership till 1896. It was
through his influence that a British protectorate was pro-
claimed over a large portion of Bechuanaland, by which
Mr. Kruger's designs on that part of Africa were check-
mated. Through Mr. Rhodes's influence, too, numerous
small diamond companies at Kimberley were amalgamated,
from henceforward being known as the De Beers Consolidated
Mines. A Customs Union for South Africa had been already
formed — a first step towards federation ; the union was joined
by the Orange Free State, and soon afterwards by British
Bechuanaland and Basutoland. Through Mr. Rhodes's in-

BRITISH IMJLE IN AFKICA. Ido

fluencc, the Glen Grey Act was passed, the principle of which
was to safeguard the rights and privileges of coloured people
in the native reserves, and to levy upon every able-bodied
labourer a tax of ten shillings a year, unless he could show
that lie had been in service for a certain portion of the
year — "Inni^ny respects the most statesmanlike Act dealing
witli tlie natives on the Statute Book."*

The discovery of the Gold and the Diamond mines in
the north had given a great impetus to railway development.
Mr. Kruger (or his government), intent on encouraging the
Delagoa route to the Transvaal, qnadrapled the traffic rates
north of the Vaal River ; and, when the Cape merchants
endeavoured to forward their goods by waggon from the Vaal
northwards, he closed the fords (" drifts ") on the river (1895).
This arbitrary action led to such a vigorous protest bj' the
home government that the fords were reopened.

In 1896, the revelation of ^Ir. Tlhodes's complicity in the
Jameson Raid raised such a storm of surprise and indignation
in the colony that he resigned the Premiership. Another
result of the Raid had been a fresh Matabele rising, and during
the hostilities which ensued, Mr. Rhodes went, alone and
entirely unai*med, into the very heart of Matabeleland, and,
trusting to his OAvn porsonal influence, he met the chiefs in
conference in their stronghold in the Matoppo hills. This
sublime bravery and confidence, both in the natives and
himself, was full}' justified; for the chiefs eventually surrendered
unconditionally, and the rebellion was at an end. By this
" master-stroke of diplomacy and courage " Mr. Rhodes bought
"golden opinions from all sorts of people," and both Dutch
and English colonists united to give him an enthusiastic
reception on his return to Cape Town.

In 1898, Natal entered the Customs Union — another mile-
stone on the road to federation.

* The labour clauses o( this Act were repealed in 1905.

193 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

During the South African war, there was a good deal of
friction and exeitement in Cape Colony, especiallj during the
Premiership of Mr. Schreiner, the leader of the Bund party and
a friend of the Boers ; and between him and Sir Alfred Milner,
the new Governor of the Colony, there was a good deal of
scantUy-veiled hostility. The initial engagements of the war,
which were nearly all British reverses, took place within
Colonial territory, and had the effect of encouraging many of
the Dutch colonists of the Cape to join their fellow-countrymen
across the Vaal. On the other hand, the loyal colonists were,
after the arrival of Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, recruited
in large numbers for the Impeiial troops. The story of
Mafeking and Kimberley (where Mr. Rhodes was imprisoned
during the whole of the siege) will be told under the history of
the Transvaal. A Disfranchisement Bill was passed under the
Premiership of Sir Gordon Sprigg — who had succeeded
Mr. Schreiner — to punish the Cape rebels who had joined the
Boers (1900). Martial law, which had been proclaimed in
Cape Colony in the previous year, was repealed in 1902.

In 1903, Mr. Chamberlain visited Cape Town, and had an
enthusiastic reception. His public speeches were directed
towards healing the racial wounds that still remained. At a
farewell banquet at Cape Town, he declared that " all the
divergent races which went to make up the British Empire
had as their motto — " One life, one flag, one fleet, one empire."

Since the conclusion of the Boer "War, the South African
colonies have made such tangible progress in
Pederalisation, ^-^^ matter of federalisation that the King's
1910.

speech at the opening of Parliament in 1910

(February 21st) contained the following paragraph : —

" The establishment of the Union of South Africa has been fixed
at the end of May, when its new Government will be constituted, and
soon afterwards the first Parliame:it, representing the consolidated
electorate, will be ready to assemble for its important deliberations.''*
* For further particulars as to federation, see under Natal,

BlUTISII R':LE in AFIUCA. 197

Rhodesia. — Ivhodcsia, or, as it has been called, " Charter-
lantl,'' is divided into North and South Rhodesia, and comprises
vast stretches of country, the former principally north and
the latter south of the River Zambesi. North Rhodesia is
sub-divided into North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia;
it is, as yet, an ill-defined and undeveloped country; it is
bounded by Lake Nyassa on the east and the Orange Free
State on the west. Southern Rhodesia includes Matabeleland,
Mashonaland, Barotseland, etc. These countries were man-
aged, till 1898, by the British South Africa Company, and
townships have been founded at Salisbury, Victoria, liulawayo,
etc., the first-named being the capital. The country is still
governed, for the most part, according to the terms of the
charter granted in 1889 to the British South A'rica Company;
but, in 1898, the charter was amended by Orders in Council,
with an administrator, nominated by the Secretary of State,
and executive and legislative councils n'ere entrusted with
the government of the colony. Probably, a great future
awaits this country, but at present there are not more than
14,000 white inhabitants in it. Bulawayo and Salisbury both
enjoy municipal self-government.

Other colonies and protectorates similarly awaiting develop-
ment are British Bechuanaland, Bechuanaland Protectorate
and Basutoland.

Natal. — In 1879, trouble arose with Cetywayo, King of the

Zulus, who had organised his army into a great " Celibate,

man-slaying war machine," and by his opposi-

Zulu War, ^. ^ missionaries, his plundering raids and
1879. °

murders, had become a terror to Natal. After

futile negotiations, British troops entered Zululand in January

of that year. At Isandlwana, however. Colonels Durnford

and Pulleine, together witli other officers and many men, were

/surprised and killed by about 15.000 Zulus. At Rorke's Drift,

198 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THK SEAS.

on the other hand, Lieutenants Ch ird and Bromliead success-
fully resisted an overwhelming force of the eneni}'. In June,
a reconnoitring party under Prince Louis Napoleon (the Prince
Imperial) was surprised at Imbalani, and the Prince was
killed. In July, Cetj'wayo was completely defeated by Lord
Chelmsford at Ulundi, after which the Zulus agreed to a treaty
bj' which their mUitary system was to be abolished, and the
country divided into districts, under native chiefs, with a
British resident in each. In 18S2, Cety wayo came to England,
and was permitted to visit Queen Victoria, the Prince of
Wales, and Mr. Gladstone. After his restoration, Cetywayo
was attacked by powerful native chiefs, and civil war raged
throughout Zululand. In 1884, Cetywayo died, and was
succeeded by his son, Dinizulu. In 1886, a large portion
of Western Zululand, which had been overrun by the Beers,
and called by them the " New Eepublic," was annexed to
the Transvaal. In 1887, Zululand was annexed as a British
possession, and in 1903, the u»tthern districts, and other large
territories, were taken over by Natal.

The retrocession of the Transvaal Independence in 1831
had always been viewed with great dissatisfaction in Natal,
and at a public meeting at Durban, presided over by the
Mayor, a resolution was passed and telegraphed to members of
the Imperial Parliament as follows : " Utter disgust with settle-
ment. British prestige with our natives entirely forfeited. No
consideration for loyal Boers or British residents. Terms of
peace simply mean greater bloodshed at no distant date."

In 1884:- 1885, the great gold discoveries in the Transvaal
produced immense excitement in Natal, and not excitement
only, but activity, speculation, emigration, waggon-work,
railway construction, and so forth. In fact, Durban and
Pietermaritzburg became like Genoa and Venice in the time of
the Crusades, and many of the Natal colonists became mine
proprietors on a large scale.

UKITISU KULE IN AFRICA. 199

In 1893, responsible self-government was accorded to Natal.
In 1898 (as has been said), Natal entered the South Africa
Customs Union.

rolitical predictions arc usually falsified (often ludicrou.sl}-)
by the event; but that contained in the Durban telegram
mentioned above was destmed to be verified with a vengeance,
and Natal herself was fated to bear tlie initial brunt of the
" greater bloodshed." In 1899, tlie J3oers burst into north-
west Natal, and the following engagements were decided in
quick succession on Natal territory: — Talana Hill, won by
General Symons (who was himself killed) ; Elandslaagte,
victory for Sir George White ; Nicholson's Nek, British
reverse (surrender of Colonel Carleton) ; Siege of Ladysmith
(with General BuUer's campaigns, and, eventually, relief of
the town). The relief of Ladysmith was followed by the
evacuation of Natal by the Boers. In this war the Natal
Volunteers aided the mother country materiall}-.

Federation. — By the South Africa Bill of September, 1909
Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Eiver
Colony are to be federated within twelve months {i.e., by
September, 1910). The seat of government is to be at Pretoria,
and that of the legislature at Cape Colonj'.

East Africa Protectorates. — In the scramble for Africa,
many Crown colonies and protectorates have been proclaimed
by Great Britain, e.g. : —

Zululand [see under Natal).

Basutoland. — The Basuto power was founded by Moshesh,
a chief of remarkable ambition, courage, foresight and cunning.
The Basutos were engaged in frequent feuds and fightings
with the Boers, and were also a danger to Natal. Moshesh
died in 1870, and, in 1871, Basutoland was annexed to Cape
Colony. The task of looking after such a \\ ild people proved.

200 BRITISH DOMIXIOHS BEYOND THE SEAS.

however, more than the Cape government had bargained for;
and, in 1884, the latter resigned her share of the honour,
and gave Basutoland back to the mother country. Since then
Basutoland has been treated as a crown colony, and it
promises to be a real success in the near future.

North of Natal, Great Britain possesses in East Africa no
colonies, only protectorates, or crown colonies, administered
by the Colonial Office or the Foreign Office. These consist
of Uganda, Nyassaland, Zanzibar and Pemba. The difficulty
and expense of administering these countries is sometimes
great. Until 1895, Zanzibar was governed by the Imperial
British East Africa Company, which had been chartered in
1888, and which, in 1895, surrendered its rights to the Imperial
government. The Germans had declared a protectorate over
Witu, but, in 1890, they withdrew this protectorate in favour
of Great Britain.

The annexations by Germany on the east coast had made
Great Britain uneasy for the horizon enjoyed by Aden. In
1885, therefore, the government proclaimed Somaliland — the
African territory opposite Aden — a British protectorate, and
stationed a few soldiers at Berbera, on the coast. This, it
was thought, would effectually safeguard Aden's " ancient
lights." By the year 1910, however, the difficult}' — not to
say absurdity — of assuming to " protect " a country four
hundred miles long and about a hundred and sixty milei broad
(or twice the size of Ireland) by means of a single regiment
was sufficiently appreciated ; and the home government has
now entirely abandoned the interior, and determined to
concentrate its protective attentions on one or two places
on the coast.

West African Protectorates, etc. — On the Gold Coast the

Dutch and the English both had settlements of long standing.
These settlements were not colonies, bub protectorates; rent

w/m.

Map ofBrilisli
Easl Africa

Prolectoral e s .

To face I). 200.

BKiriSH KULE IN AFRICA. 201

was paid to native chiefs for the forts and factories occupied;

trade alone was the raison d'etre of these settlements, and

there was no sovereignty or ownership in the European

communities there. The English and the Dutch settlements

were KG mixed up that no line of demarcation or frontiers

marking spheres of influence could possibly be drawn. The

English had their headquarters at Cape Coast Castle, and the

Dutch had theirs at St. George D'Ehnina, only a few miles

away. The Dutch settlements w&re not a success, and they

cost Holland some jeil.OOO yearly. British trade, too, suffered

under such circumstances, so that both countries were anxious

to make some readjustment.

In 1867, therefore, an Anglo-Dutch Convention was signed,

by which Holland ceded to England all her settlements on the

eastern half of the Gold Coast, and England

^^^'^^ ceded to Holland all hers on the western half.

Cessions. . . , , mi i.-

The results were not satisfactory. The natives

would not recognise the transference of protection, and the
Dutch had to defend themselves from the attacks of the
Fantees, and other tribes. In 1871, therefore, Holland made
another Convention with Great Britain, by which she sold her
stores and other assets to England at a valuation, and with-
drew entirely from this Gold Coast, where she had been
settled for 235 years.

This cjssion of the Dutch settlements, however, involved

England in unforeseen trouble. The hinterland was occupied

by some powerful kings, who were not only

AshantiWar, frequently at war with each other, but who

""* resented the transfer of Elraina to a protector

strong enough, should it choose, to discontinue paying

the "ground rent," and to prevent access from the sea

to the interior via Elmina. The Ashanti king seized some

Europeans and imprisoned them at Kumasi, and refused to

give them up. War therefore broke out. In January, 187-1,

202 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

Sir Garnet Wolseley invaded Ashanti territory, and after twice
defeating the enemy, entered Kumasi, and burned the town,
from which the Icing had fled. A treaty was then concluded,
by which the Ashantis renounced all claims on the Pro-
tectorate, and agreed to pay an indemnity, and put a stop to
human sacrifices.

This breaking up of the power of Ashanti was all important
for the safety of the British Protectorate ; but the Treaty of
1874 was not carried out by the Ashantis, and the hinterland
remained a terror to the British traders. Wars and murders
continued, and the Ashanti king, Prempeh, refused to recognise
the authority of the governor of the Gold Coast. In 1895,
therefore, another expedition was organised and sent against
Ashanti under Sir Francis Scott. In January, 1896, Kumasi
was again occupied, and the king being captured was taken as
a prisoner and lodged in Elmina jail. In was in this
expedition that Prince Henry of Battenberg lost his life
through fever. Refractory and rebellious conduct on the part
of the Ashantis necessitated another expedition in 1900.
Colonel Willcocks was sent to relieve some missionaries and
other Europeans who were beleagured in the fort of Kumasi.
After accomplishing his object with complete success Colonel
Willcocks further quelled the insurgent spirit throughout the
country, and in 1901 peace was once more restored. In
September of that year Ashanti was annexed by Great Britain.

There was something comical about the scramble for Africa,
which began in the 'eighties ; for from that time chartered
companies were formed, there was a rush to make treaties
with the natives, and " spheres of influence " were being
announced, protectorates proclaimed, and annexations declared,
by most of the great colonisiag powers of Europe. Lagos had
been acquired by Great Britain as far back as 1861, and things
jogged along quietly enou^^h for about a quarter of a century.
But when France began exploring the Sahara, and claiming

BRITISU KULK IN AFKK A. 203

to " protect " WosLern Africa from tlie Mediterranean to
Tiiubuctoo, and from Timbuctoo to Dahomey on the west
of Lagos, and when, in addition, the Germans seized the
Cameroons on the east, Great Britain replied by declaring a
Protectorate over the Lower Niger. Prolonged and trouble-
some negotiations with France and Germany ensued, but
at length the boundaries were satisfactorily settled — with
Germany by the treaties of 1885 and 1893, and with France by
agreements of 1890 and 1898. The National Africa Company
which had been founded in 1879 received a charter in 1886,
and then became known as the Royal Niger Company. On
January 1, 1900, the Crown took over the territor.es of the
Company, and Ni'jcria is now administered by the Colonial
Office, being divided into Upper Nigeria and Loiver Nigeria^
with a High Qtommissioner over each.

The Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. — After the
Great Trek of 1836, and the foundation of the Orange Free
State and the Transvaal Republic (already mentioned), there
was practically no central government in those States. Both
States were extremely democratic in their organisation — if such
a word as organisation can be applied to them at all. Indeed,
in the Orange Free State, every man did as seemed right in
his own eyes. Whether these colonists could shake off their
British allegiance, possess themselves of the hinteiland,
and establish independent republics, was a very moot question
of constitutional law. So dangerous and intolerable was the
situation, indeed, that, in 1848, a British garrison was placed
in Bloemfontein, and the country was declared annexed by
England. However, by the Sand River Convention in 1852,
the independence of the Transvaal was recognised; the
garrison was then withdrawn from the Orange Free State,
and the independence of that country also was recognised
(1854j. The practical legalisation of slavery, and the consc-

204 BRITISU DOMINION'S BEYOND THE SEAS.

quent irritation of and hostilities with the natives, was the
chief cause of the trouble between the Boers and Great
Britain, which the following years developeJ.

In 1856, something in the shape of a constitution was
framed in the Transvaal, providing for a triennial Volksraad
(or parliament), together with a president and a council. The
first president was Commandant-General M. W. Pretorius.
But not all the petty district states, into which the country
had hitherto been divided, would recognise the new Constitu-
tion. Both Zoutspansberg and Lydenburg repudiated it
entirely, and the Transvaal was threatened with a civil war.
The situation was complicated by an effort, at first friendly,
and then forcible, to effect a union with the Orange Free
State; and it was not until 1860 that Zoutspansberg and
Lydenburg gave in their submission to the majority, and
became incorporated with the Transvaal. Pretoria was now
made the capital of the Eepublic and the seat of govern-
ment.

The seventeen years which followed this consummation,
however, were far from happy or reassuring. Native risings
and Kaffir wars, consequent on the continuance of slavery
and a slave trade, as well as repeated efforts to appropriate
fresh territory beyond the frontiers, alternated with intestine
quarrels and civil war. The education of children was
neglected, missionary work was much restricted, the treasury
was empty, the introduction of paper money did not save
the situat'on, and the public credit sank very low. On the
north the Kafl&rs were threatening, and on the east the Zulus.
The discovery of gold and diamonds on the western frontiers
caused further boundary disputes in 1867. A three-cornered
claim upon a diamond mine near what is now called Barkly
West, on the banks of the Vaal, culminated in an arbitration,
which found in the favour of the Griquas, a race of half-
castes, to whom the strip of territory was accordingly handed

UKITISU KULK IN AbUICA. 205

over. Thi3 was known as the " Keate Award," from tlie
name of the referee, Lieutenant-Governor Keate of Natal.
This award was followed by the voluntary submission of
Griqualand West, so-called to distinguish it from Griqualand
East, which lies south-west of Natal. This award, with its
sequel, was far from being acceptable to the Boers.

In 1872, Pretorius resigned, and the Rev. T. F. Burgers, a
minister of the Dutch lleformed Church, was elected
President. Burgers was an active and well-intentioned man,
but with somewhat romantic ideas. The old troubles con-
tinued— border wars with the natives, slavery cruelties, want
of funds, and loss of public credit. The paper money had
become so depreciated that the one-pound notes were worth
no more than a shilling. Burgers himself was in despair, and
so bitterly disappointed with the crooked and refractory
character of the people who had chosen him as their President,
that in the Volksraad (in March, 1877) he indulged in some
very plain language to his countrymen: " I would rather," he
declared, "be a policeman under a strong government than
the President of such a State. It is you — you members of
the Raad and Boers — who have lost the country, who have
sold your independence for a drink. You have iil-treated the
natives, you have shot them down, you have sold them into
slavery, and now you have to pay the penalty. . . . We should
delude ourselves by entertaining the hope that matters would
mend by-and-by."

The penalty here spoken of referred to tlie approaching
annexation of the Transvaal by Great Britain ; for the danger

and disorganisation seemed to the British

Annexation of , j. .1 - •- . . ci-

government so great, that it sent out Sir

Theophilus Shcpstone to enquire into the

feasibility of annexation. In April, 1877, Shcpstone issued a

proclamation declaring the Transvaal annexed. The whole

question bristled with ditliculties, and it seems clear now that

206 BRirisn dominions beyond the seas.

Shepstone was misled into believing that the majority of the
]joers were in favour of annexation. Some 33 per cent, of the
adult male population did indeed petition for annexation, but
nearly twice that proportion was against the measure, most
of them, probably, most violently opposed to it. The action of
the British government was no doubt hastened by rumours of
a Transvaal-German alliance, or of intervention on the part of
Germany.

In 1879, Sir Owen Lanyon was sent out as Governor of
the Transvaal. This selection was not a happy one. Larfon
was quite ignorant of the Boers and their language, and
seemed unable to accommodate himself to the'r ultra-
democratic ways. As governor, he received ,£300 a year
"coffee money," for which he was expected to drink coffee
occasionally with the people. This, however, he did not do.
And this ignoring of national customs, this nonconformity
on the part of the governor, bred fresh discontent among the
people, and petitions for independence were got up, and a
deputation was sent to England with the same object.

Meanwhile, the Zulus, after inflicting a disastrous blow
upon the British armies at Isandhlwana, were defeate:!, and
their power broken by Lord Chelmsford at Ulundi, while
another great menace of the Transvaal, Secocoeni, was routed
by Sir Garnet Wolesley, and his army dispersed. This British
intervention and annexation was prompted by a desire for
OBder and peace, and not from any particularly selfish motive ;
for as yel; the great gold mines had not been discovered,
and the Transvaal presented no particular attraction to the
emigrant.

Disraeli's parliament was drawing to a close, and Mr.
Gladstone's election speeches implied threats that, if success-
ful at the polls, he would rescind the annexation proclamation.
The spirit of our Constitution, however, strongly discourages
the reversal by one ministry of the acts of its predecessors ;

BUITISH UULK IN AFRICA. 207

and the reactionary threats of an opposition statesman are
thus bound to be largely modified after his accession to
office. The Boer appeals to Mr. Gladstone to fulfil his
Midlothian pledges and cancel the annexation, were replied
to by him to ths effect that the freedom desired by the Boers
might be " most easily and promptly conceded to the Trans-
vaal as a member of a South African Federation." This was
far from satisfying the agitators, and the independence
movc*Ment in the Transvaal grew daily in extent and intensity,
The vigour with which Sir Owen Lanyon enforced the
payment of taxes, including the seizure of the property of
those who were in arrear, did not ease the

.„„- situation, and the smouldering fire broke out

1880. ' °

into rebellion in the same year (1880). Then

followed, in rapid succession, a series of skinnislies and

combats wholly- disastrous to the British arms. At Bronkhorst

Spruit a British detachment was surprised and cut up, about

half being killed and the rest made prisoner-. At Lang's

Nek, in Natal, a hill which the Boers had occupied, Sir

George Colley was defeated in an attempt to dislodge the

enemy. He then occupied Majuba Hill, which commanded

the camp of the Boers. Here he was attacked, on February

27th, and lost nearly half his force in killed and wounded,

and was himself among the slain.

After Colley's death, General Sir Evelj-n Wood succeeded

to the command, but, to the surprise of everybod}*, a treaty

was almost at once concluded with the Boers,
Retrocession i^y ^.j^^^,,^ ^j^^ j^^^^^ ^^.^^^ ^^ . ^^U ^j^^

of Transvaal, . , . , ., , , -r^ . ,

jggj nulcpendence that was compatible with British

suzerainty and a British resident at Pretoria.

In May, 1881, this treaty was matured into the Convention

of Pretoria. By this Convention (which consisted of 33

articles), "the control of the external relations of the said

State, including the conclusion of treaties and the conduct

208 BRITISH DOillNIOXS BEYOND THK SEAS.

of diplomatic intercourse with foreign powers," and the right
to march troops, if necessary, through the territories of the
Transvaal, were retained by Great Britain. Mr. Kruger was
now President, and remained President for eighteen years.
The Boers began at once to use tlieir independence in a
peculiar way ; they adopted the monopoly' system, which
had been the cause of such trouble between our own sovereigns
and the nation in the time of Elizabeth and the Stuarts, and
which had been abolished by the Long Parliament. Thus,
the Transvaal government granted concessions or monopolies
to private persons, of such things as alcohol, dynamite, jam,
bricks, wool, paper, etc.

Frontier quarrels, too, revived. The Boers of the south-
western district burst across the border, drove back the natives,
and set up the " Eepublics " of Stellaland and Goshen, situated
in what is now British Bechuanaland. The colonials pro-
tested, but the Boers continued their operations ; and, further,
began raiding into Zululand on the east, and into the Chartered
Company's territory on the north. To check these raids, it was
found necessary to send out a force, under Sir Charles Warren,
and to organise a frontier police force to provide against future
contingencies. Sir Charles Warren succeeded in exterminating
the two republics, and occupying that part of Bechuanaland
without any fighting.

Mr. Kruger, at the same time, headed a deputation to
London, to interview the Colonial Secretary, with a view to
modifying the Convention of Pretoria in the direction of
according the Boers more freedom in their foreign relations,
and, if possible, to dispensing with the objectionable word
" suzerainty." The deputation was so far successful that the
Pretoria Convention of 1881 was superseded by the London
Convention of 1884. By this latter Convention, the Transvaal
boundaries were once more defined, the title of the Boer State
was changed to the " South African Republic," a veto over

BlUTISH RULE IN AFRICA. 209

the foreign politics of the Republic was still reserved to the
British government, and though the word "suzerainty"
was not used, it was claimed by Lord Derby (the Colonial
Secretary) that the thing was not relinquished. Following
on this convention, in 1885, the Boers entered Zululand,
and, by intrigue or negotiation, claimed a large amount of
territory', and called it the " New Republic " ; which annexation,
though in considei'ably reduced dimensions, was recognised
by Great Britain in 1886, and was incorporated in the Trans-
vaal in 1888.

In 1886, came the great crisis in the history of the Republic.
Gold had been found there before this time, but it was in 1886

that the Rand Gold Fields were discovered,
Johannesburg.

which soon turned out to be perhaps the

greatest in the world. Their value has been estimated at
^700,000,000. The whole country, and with it the political
situation, was at once transformed. A rush from almost every
European countr3', as Nvell as from America, took place. The
land increased in value by leaps and bounds. Villages and
hamlets swelled into towns, and the city of Johannesburg sprang
into existence. Soon the Boers had sold about one-thu-d of their
land to the iuiinigrants — or " Uitlanders," as the settlers came
to be called. This influx of foreigners travelled chiefly by way
of Natal, and gave that country, and to its cities Durban and
Pietermaritzbmrg, an enormous stimulus. Owing to the
elaborate and expensive machmery required to work the deep
Transvaal mines, ti;e miners were not exactly ol "jhe same
character as those of California, Australia and Klon(!k3rlie ; they
were to a considerable extent men of substance \rith long
pockets ; and though bogus companies were started, the number
of needy exploiters, unscrupulous adventurers and other
undesirables was not large. This industrial "boom" brought
about also a financial revolution, for the national revenue
increased with unprecedented rapidity. In 1882, the revenue

210 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

was ^£177,030 : in 1887, it was ^1,500.000, while in 1899 it

was Je4,000,000.

And now began that great struggle between the Transvaal

government and the Uitlanders, which resulted first in the

Jameson Raid, and secondly in the Mar of

The Uitlanders, -, , „ , ■, • .

1899 and the final conquest and annexation or

the country by Great Britain. If the Uitlanders were not the

usual riff-raif of fortune-seekers, their ways and manne»s were

not exactly those of the Boers ; and it must be confessed that

b}' introducing into the country many of the vices without any

of the virtues of civilisation, they gave the Dutch rustics cause

for a great deal of well-founded and natural irritation. Many

of the Boer farmers were simple, unsophisticated men, religious,

Bible-reading folk, desiring to live quiet lives, with traditions

of BrUle and Ley den circulating in their system ; it is not to

be wondered at that they should be scandalised at seeing a

great city rise up suddenly in their midst, filled with drinking-

shops and gamblincr-dens, and patronisuig horse-racing, betting

and Sunday theatres. The indefinite growth and permanent

domicile in their midst of this pattern of civilisation was

naturally most repulsive to all quiet, homely and morally-given

minds ; and it is only by surrendering one's self to a blind and

bigoted partisanship that we can ascribe to one side alone all

the blame and responsibility in the struggle that followed. At

all events, every impartial person will allow that the Boers had

something more than a pretext for the revenge which they

proceeded to take on the foreigners of Johannesburg. Seeing

Johannesbui-g assuming alarming proportions in population as

well as " civilisation," the government at Pretoria proceeded to

crusli the life out of the alien community by a long series of

oppressive enactments.

Thougli paying seven-eighths of the revenue, these Uitlanders

were deprived of the franchise, neither had they any voice in

BKITISH RULE IN AFUICA. 211

the choice of State officials, whose salaries, at the same time,

rose prodigiously. In 1886, those salaries totalled only

^51,000 a year; in 1899, they amounted to
Penal Laws*

jGI, 200,000, while bribery, shameless and corrupt,

was carried on at Pretoria. Nor was the situation eased as

time went on. The residential qualification for the franchise

when granted, was raised from five years to ten, and from

ten to fourteen. On the education of the children of the

Uitlanders JG650 was spent yearly ; on the children of the

Boers the yearly sum expended was jG68,000. The municipal

government of Johannesburg was out of date as well

as corrupt. Sanitary science was a thing unknown.

There was no proper drainage system and no adequate water

supply. The impartiality of the police could not be depended

on, and justice was tainted by national prejudice. The

Uitlanders could not sit on a jury. The mining interests

were being constantly hampered by fresh restrictions. The

railways were owned by the state, and the rates and fares

charged were exorbitant. The numerous duties and tolls paid

by the residents of Johannesburg were not expended for the

benefit of the town, but were pocketed by the government at

Pretoria. Add to this that the Uitlanders were actually

commandeered for compulsory miUtary service, and perhaps

the limit of the unreasonable was reached, though the cup

was not yet full.

It is not to be wondered at that under these circumstances

petitions were addressed first to the governncnt at Pretoria

without effect, and then to the government of Queen Victoria,

and that threats of intervention had to be resorted to before a

few of the worst grievances were mitigated.

As the British government did not see its way to intervene

or put further pressure on the government at Pretoria, it is

hardly to be wondered at that, amongst British sympathisers

212 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

in adjacent territory, some unofficial attempt should have been

made to compel the Boer government to redress the grievances

of the Uitlanders.

On November 15th, 1895, the British Bechuanaland Police

were disbanded, but, being allowed to join the Chartered

Company', many of them did so. Drilling and
Jameson Raid. . ,, - , .

recrmting was carried on at Mafeking and

Pitsani, in British Bechuanaland, near the Transvaal frontier.
Between these places and Johannesburg relays of horses,
stores and provisions were established, and other preparations
made for a military expedition. The " Raid " was engineered
bj- Dr. Jameson, Administrator of the British South Africa
Company, and with him were associated many other officers.
On the expedition bemg announced to the men, however, some
of them demurred, and demanded to know if they were
niai'ching under the Queen's orders, or under those of the
Company. The officers replied that they were going to fight
for the supremacy of the British flag in South Africa, that
there would probably be no fighting, but that they would be
ready if attacked. Rumours o* the Raid having reached head-
quarters, letters and telegrams were sent after Dr. Jameson
by the Governor of Cape Colony, Sir Hercules Robinson,
commanding the expedition to return at once, and stating
that Her Majesty's government repudiated the whole pro-
ceeding. The expedition, nevertheless, proceeded into the
Transvaal. But, on January Ist and 2nd, 1896, they were
attacked by the Boers, and overpowered ; and after some
fighting and loss of life, the expedition surrendered. On being
tried at Pretoria, four of the leaders were condMuned to death.
On this occasion the Boer government sent to Cook House
Drift for a beam upon which, in 1816, five Boors had been
hanged by the Cape Town authorities for a rising in con-
nection with some slavery outrages. That severity-, though
eighty years old, had not been forgotten. The vengeance of

luarisii nuLic in ai'uica. '213

the battle-field, as Sir Conau Doyle remarks, may be forgiveui
but not that of the gallows. The sentence on the Jameson
raiders, however, was not carried out ; it was commuted to
a tine of jE25,000 each inflicted on the leaders, while the rest
of the officers were sentenced to two years' imprisonment
and j92,000 fine each. This sentence was, after a short
imprisonment, commuted. This treatment, it must be owned,
was, on the whole, not only unrevengeful, but generous. A
bill was subsequently sent in to the British government by
the Pretoria authorities, amounting to ^1,677,938 3s. 3d.
This, however, has not yet been paid, not even the 3s. 3d. !

Further Boer Commissions were appointed to enquire into
the grievances of the Uitlanders, and Reports were dul^- issued
advocating reforms ; but the Reports, as before, were ignored,
and the tyranny continued, and was, indeed, augmented. The
Uitlanders then in despair sent a petition direct to Queen
Victoria (1899) signed by 21,000 persons, enumerating their
grievances, and praying for intervention. In consequence of
this petition, negotiations followed at Bloemfontein between
Sir Alfred Milncr and President Kruger. But it was impossible
to obtain any reasonable redress from the latter. The negotia-
tions dragged on without any progress being made, while the
British government massed troops on the Natal frontier of the
Transvaal, and sent out reinforcements. The crisis grew
darker and more threatening every day. The Boer government
now repudiated the British suzerainty altogether, on the
ground that it had not been mentioned in the Treaty of
London of 1884, which amended the Pretoria Convention of
1881. Mr. Chamberlain pointed out that if everything in the
earlier convention was to be taken as cancelled because it was
not mentioned in the later treat}', this cancelling would include
the grant of self-government to the Transvaal. The Boers
offered to submit the whole dispute to arbitration, but surh a
course could not be adopted by Great Britain, unless she was

214: BiUTlSH DOMINIONS BKYUND THE SEAS.

prejjared to recognise the South African Kepublic as ou an
equaUty with herself.

At last the Boer government, on October 9th, sent in an
ultimatum demanding that the troops on the Natal frontier,
and also the reinforcements sent to British South Africa since
January 1st, 1899, should be withdrawn, that those on then-
way out be sent back without landing, and that all out-
standing disputes should be submitted to arbitration. A reply
was required within forty-eight hours. The British govern
ment replied that it was impossible to discuss such terms at
all. On Wednesday, therefore, October 11th, 1899, war broke
out between England and the South African Republic ; the
Orange Free State joined the Republic, and thus became
involved in the war.

It is evident now that both the belligerents in this war

belittled their opponents unworthily. The Boers, after

witnessing Lang's Nek, Ingogo, and Majuba

South African jj-jj ^^^ ^^^^ recently, the Jameson Raid,

War, -, . ,

1899-1902. viewed with supreme contempt the capabilities

of the British Army ; and the English people, or
a considerable majority of them, looked upon these bandoliered
farmers as beneath contempt; and burning to wipe out the
many rebuffs their troops had suffered, and to avenge the
Uitlanders for the long and systematic tyranny they had
endured, believed that the British army " would move like a
steam-roller from Cape Town to Pretoria," crushing all
opposition and annihilating it once for all.

The Boers began by invading Natal, and advancing towards
Cape Colony, and it was with no less surprise than chagrin
that the English public read shortly afterwards of fom* British
forces being shut up or paralysed by the Boers — at Kimberley,
Mafeking, Magersfontein and Ladysraith, The first part of the
war consisted in the struggles of the British lion to extricate
himself from these spring-traps in which his paws were held

BRITISH KULE IN AFUICA. 215

fast. Lord Methuca lailed to relieve Kimberley, and was

rudely checked at Magersfoiitciu where General Wauchope

was killed and nearly 1,000 oUicers and men lost. General

Gatacre, in attacking the Boer position at Stormberg about

the same time, was badly beaten, and lost over 700

killed and wounded. Sir Rcdvers BuUer, who had arrived

as Commander-in-Chief, could do no better. His eflforts

to relieve Ladysmith were a disastrous failure. The Boers

under General Botha had fortified themselves on the north

bank of the Tugela River, and General Buller's assault

on their position was repulsed with the loss of 1,100 men

and ten guns I

Lord Roberts was then appointed Commander-in-Chief,

with Lord Kitchener as his Chief of the Staff. The Boers,

anxious to reduce Ladysmith before Lord
Lord Roberts. . , -, , i^

Roberts arrived, made a desperate assault upon

the town, but they were repulsed with severe loss (January

6th, 1900). General Buller then made another attempt to

reach Ladysmith by crossing the Tugela and turning the

enemies' left wing. This attempt, known as the Battle of

Spion Kop, was more disastrous than the previous one, and

General Buller had to recross the Tugela with the loss of

1,700 men (January 24th). A thurd attempt at relief made on

February 5th, fared no better. The deadlock continued,

Mafeking, Kimberley and Ladysmith being invested by the

Boers, and the British forces locked up in those towns bemg

able to do nothing but hold their own. Lord Roberts, however,

had arrived and already organised a force, with which he

proceeded to the Modder River on the western border of the

Orange Free State. General French was sent immediately to

the relief of Kimberley, which he efifected in dashing style at

the head of his cavalry. The Boer General, Cronje, retreated

to Paardeberg where he was forthwith hemmed in by Lord

Kitchener and General French, and obliged to capitulate with

"216 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

4,000 of Ms men. This success, which was only gained,
however, at considerable loss to the British, took place on
February 27th, the anniversary of Majuba Hill. On the
following day. General Buller had succeeded, after another ten
days' struggle, in reUeving Ladysmith, Lord Dundonald and
the Natal Cai-abineers entering the town on February 28th.
General BuUer's four efforts had cost the army 5,000 men
in all.

Lord Roberts then occupied Bloemfontein, the Orange Free
State capital; and a fortnight later Piet Joubert, the Boer
Commandant General, died at Pretoria. Lord Roberts' army
was not able to advance from Bloemfontein for another six
weeks. Mafeking, which had been gallantly defended by Colonel
Baden-Powell and his garrison since October 13th, 1899, was
relieved by a flying column under Mahon (May 17th, 1900).
The Orange Free State was formally annexed by Lord Roberts,
who then pushed on to the Transvaal, entering Johannesburg
(May 31st), and Pretoria (June 5th), and released some 3,000
British prisoners of war. President Kruger had already fled
from his capital, carrying the State archives and the exchequer
with him. Later in the year he abandoned his countrymen,
and took refuge in Portuguese territory, whence he sailed
soon afterwards for Europe (October, 1900). On September
1st, 1900, the Transvaal was declared annexed by Great
Britain.

As with the occupation of the two capitals the war seemed
over. Lord Roberts left for England in December, and handed
over the supreme command to Lord Kitchener.
The very long Unes of communication, however,
between the British army an 1 Durban, on the one hand, and
Cape Town on the other, presented many weak points, and
offered an excellent opening for guerilla operations, which the
Boers were not slow to take advantage of. In these tactics
the Boers proved themselves experts of the first class, and

BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA. 217

there followed eighteen months of tlreary invertebrate warfare,
in which the Boers often succeeded in cutting the railways and
telegraph lines, capturing isolated outposts, ambushing convoys
and doing all sorts of miscellaneous damage. They never
concentrated for a battle, and being mounted they were
almost invariably able to escape on the approach of an
organised army.

De Wet attempted an invasion of Cape Colony (February,
1901), but being defeated at Philipstown and elsewhere, he had
to retreat with the loss of several guns and many prisoners.
Botha in like manner attempted to invade Natal, but met with
a similar disaster. Nevertheless, the galling guerilla tactics
lasted a year and a half, and it was not until Lord
Kitchener had established concentration camps and a
block-house system to protect the railways, and out-
manceuvred the enemy by a series of " drives," that the
Boers gave up the game.

In May, 1902, Generals De Wet, Botha, De la Rey and

others, at Vereeniging, opened negotiations with Lords Milner

and Kitchener at Pretoria; and peace was

Peace of signed on the 31st of the same month. By

Yereeniging, peace the Boers were to surrender un-

1902. ^ e TT-

conditionally, and become subjects of Kmg
Edward VII. The property of the Boers was to be restored to
them, and an amnesty granted to all who had been engaged in
" legitimate acts of war." ^3,000,000 was to be given as
compensation to those Boers whose farms had been sacrificed
for the purpose of the concentration camps. The Dutch
language was to be used in the schools and in the law courts
where necessary, and self-government was to be introduced as
soon as the country was sufficiently settled. The British
losses were about 5,700 killed, and nearly 23,000 wounded;
while the Boers lost nearly 4,000 killed, and nearly 40,000
prisoners, out of a total force of some 65,000.

218 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

In December, 1906, the Transvaal was granted a

Constitution and self-government, in the form of a Legislative

Council of fifteen members elected by the

Governor, and a Legislative Assembly of sixty-
GoYernment. ' o j j

nine members elected by all white male
British subjects over twenty-one years of age. The Legislature
is elected for five years at a time, but may be dismissed by the
Governor. The Executive resides in the minsters, who are
appointed by the Governor. The population of the Transvaal
was, at the Census of 1904, about \\ millions, 300,000 of
whom were whites, the rest being Kaffirs and other natives.

The Orange River Colony (the new title of Orange Free
State) received a somewhat similar constitution in 1907, the
Legislative Assembly consisting of thirty-eight members, and
the Legislative Council of eleven.

MISGliLLANEOaS ACQUISinONS.

219

CHAPTER VIII.

Miscellaneous Acquisitions.

Sarawak and British Borneo.— The Dutch, since the bcp;in-
)iing of the seventeenth century, had trading stations in
Borneo, which they abandoned and retook again from time
to time.

In 1841, Sir James Brooke, who had settled in the island
of Labuan and at Sarawak in West Borneo, was by the Sultan
appointed Rajah, and Sarawak was incorporated with the
British Empire. By various treaties with the Sultan of
Brunei (North Borneo), Rajah Brooke's territory was greatly
enlarged, until it amounted to about 50,000 square miles.
Rajah Brooke had much trouble with pirates and freebooters,
but he held his own and managed his territory admirably
until 1868, when he died, and was succeeded by his nephew,
Charles Johnson Brooke (the present Rajah).

In 1881, the British North Borneo Company was formed
and chartered. It claims jurisdiction over about 31,000 square
miles in the north of the island.

In 1885, North Borneo, together with Sarawak, was pro-
claimed a British protectorate.

Cyprus.— After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, an
Anglo-Turkish agreement was made (June 4th, 1878), by which
England undertook to protect Asiatic Turkey against any
future encroachments by Russia, and Cyprus was assigned
to England, " to enable her to make necessary provision for

220

BEITISU DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

MISCKLLANEOUS ACQUiblTIONS. 221

executing her engagement." Cyprus still forms part of tlio
Ottoman Empire, and it must be restored by England if
ever Russia should restore Batoum and Kars to Turkey (!).

Burma. — By the Treaty of Yandabu (1826), after the
first Burmese War, Burma ceded to England Assam,
Tenasserim, and part of Aracan, and agreed to receive a
British resident.

In 1851, the violence of the native governor of Rangoon
provoked another v^^ar vv^ith the British, after which Pegu was
annexed. This war did not terminate vmtil 1853, when the
King of Ava submitted, and threw open the navigation of
the Irawadi.

In 1862, British Burma (Lower Burma) was formed into
a British province.

The relations between the native and the British govern-
ments were strained for some time. In 1878, King Thebaw
succeeded King Mindon. He was an almost irreclaimable
savage, and inaugurated his reign by massacring a large
number of his own relatives. The British resident withdrew,
his life being In danger, and diplomatic relations became
more strained than ever. The government of the country
went from bad to worse, and soon the outlying districts were
beyond control, full of lawlessness and violence, and a
standing danger to the British provinces. The Anglo-Burmese
treaties were broken by King Thebaw, who dealt in monopo-
lies, and thereby demoralised trade. Not only was the Indian
government unrepresented in Burma, but French and Italian
representatives were encouraged and treated with. There was
further trouble over the Bombay-Burma Trading Company,
which Thebaw threatened with fines and confiscations.

In 1885, therefore, an ultimatum was sent to the King,
and, an unsatisfactory reply being given, General Prendergast
was sent into the country with British forces. The Burmese
were taken entirely by surprise. The Br.tish army entered
Mandalay, and Thebaw, being captured, was deposed and

BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

MISCELLANBOOS ACQUISITIONS. 228

deported to India. Upper Burma was then annexed (1886).
The country was still full of disbanded native soldiers and
deserters, who roamed about, plundering and murdering every-
where. The suppression of these Dacoits necessitated several
further expeditions, an 1 it was several years before peace and
order were restored.

New Guinea. — Papua, or New Guinea, was visited by
Alfred Russell Wallace in 1858. Later on, Captam Moresby
explored portions of the country (1874), and his name is
perpetuated in the chief town. Port Moresby. The Dutch
had ancient clauBS on New Guuiea, and the Germans were
beginning to settle in the island; so that (as in the case
of Aden and Somaliland), the Australian authorities became
troubled as to the future of the great island dominating their
northern coast and of the fine water-way called Torres Strait.
Queensland therefore, in 1883, declared the eastern part of
New Guinea annexed. This annexation was disallowed by
the British government. In the following year, however.
Great Britain declared a protectorate over New Guinea east
of longitude 141=, including the islands. In 1884, Germany
set up a trading company on the north-east coast, and soon
afterwards annexed the same. Great Britain and Germany
then agreed to partition the eastern half of the island, the
northern moiety (called Wilhelm Kaiser's Land) being taken
by Germany, and the southern being retained by England.
The western half of the island was left to the Dutch, who
had had interests there of long standing.

British New Guinea comprises about 90,000 square miles,
with a population of less than half a million, which includes
a mere handful of Europeans. In 1895, the Anglo-Dutch
boundaries were settled by treaty, but the Dutch occupation
is hardly yet an effective one. English, Dutch, and German
missionaries have long been labouring, and with some success,
to undermine the savagery of the natives and supersede it
by Christian influences.

224 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

Fiji. — The Fiji Islands were discovered by the Dutch
navigator Tasman in the seventeenth century. In 1859, the
King and his chiefs offered themselves and the islands to the
British government, but the offer was not accepted. Thanks
to the missionaries, however, the savagery of the natives
was being rapidly exterminated, and, with a luxuriant soil,
fertile country, and friendly islanders, British emigration
thither began to flow in a steady stream; whon, therefore,
in 1874, another and unconditional cession of the islands
was made to Great Britain, the offer was accepted. When
Queen Victoria ascended the throne there was not a Christian
in Fiji ; when she died there was not a pagan there.

Weihaiwei. — In consequence of Chinese fanaticism, result-
ing in the miurder of European missionaries in 1897, several
European nations, including France, Russia, and Germany,
secured leases of Chinese ports for ninety-nine years. Great
Britain, at the same time, obtained a ninety -nine years' lease
of Weihaiwei, on the coast of Shantung, nearly opposite Port
Arthm-.

About the same time, a portion of the mainland of China
opposite the north coast of Hong Kong (together with a
number of islands in the vicinity) -was ceded to Great Britain,
to be administered by the authorities of Hong Kong.

Heligoland, which was taken by the British from the Danes
in 1807, was, in 1888, handed over by Great Britain to
Germany (in exchange for certain I'ights in Zanzibai"), and, in
1890, it was incorporated in the German Empire.

APPENDIX I.

Biographical.

Baker, Sir Samuel White (1821-1893), wa3 a native of Worcestershire. After
much ti-avellinij and exiiloiation in Asia (especially in Ceylon), he set out
for Africa, au 1, after navi,L;a'.iiig a lari,'e portion of the Nile, he succeeded,
in 180-1, in discoverlni,' the Albert Nyanza. He published several books
on liis Cingalese and his African explorations.

Brooke, Sir James— "Rajah Brooke"— (1803-1858), was a native of Bath.
Entorin;,' the service of the Kast India Company, he fought in the first
Burmese war (1823). In 1833, he visited China, and cherishing the project
of clearing the Malay Archipelago of pirates, he went to Borneo, and
helped the Sultan to subdue the freebooters of Sarawak. For this service
it was that he was made Rajah of Sarawak, in 1811. He accomplished
great t'jiugs (with the help of other officers) in exterminating piracy and
violence in those waters. In 1817, he returned to England, and was highly
honoured, and made Governor of the Island of Labuan, which had been
bought fro'n the Sultan. Excessive severities in the further suppression
of piracy caused the home government to deprive him of his governorship.
He died in Devonshire, at Burrator, on an estate presented to him by
public subscription.

Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of (1708-1778).— William Pitt, the elder, ranks
among the greatest of British orators and statesmen. On leaving Oxford
he entered the army, and it was as a cornet of the Blues that he first
entered Parliament as member for Old Sarum. The part he played in
opposing Walpole led to the loss of his commission. After this he became
one of the most active of that minister's opponents, leading the younger
part of the Opposition— "The Boys" — with such spirit and eflEect as to
earn for himself a great reputation as a Parliamentary debater. In 1746,
he became one of the vice-treasurers for Ireland, and was subsequently
appointed Paymaster-General. In 1754, he became chief minister, but
was soon ousted by his great rival Pox. In 1756, however, the King had
to yield to the popular acclaim, and Pitt again became chief minister,
only to resign his post when the King arbitrarily dismissed his friend and
relation, Lord Temple, from his post of First Lord of the Admiralty. For
two and a half months the country remained without a Ministry, and at
the expiration of that time, the King was forced again to send for Pitt,
under whose able rule the reign of George II. closed in a blaze of
glory, in striking contrast to the bitter humiliation of the period which
immediately preceded it. The accession of George III., however, brought
Lord Bute into power, and Pitt again resigned. Once more the voice of
the nation recalled him, in 17G(), and he again took office, accepting, at
the same time, the title of Earl of Chatham. Ill-health caused hitu
to withdraw from all active participation in the government, and it is
during this period that, under his lieutenant, Townshend, those measures
were passed which led to the separation of the American colonies. In
1770, lie returned to active life, speaking as beiore, but with little of his

226 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

old power. In 177S, the excitement of a speech against the recognition
of the independence of the American colonies proved too great for
him. He fell in a fit on the floor of the House, and died about a month
afterwards.

Clive, Robert, Baron Cliye of Plassey (1723-1774), was the foremost of those
great " soldier-politicals " who won Enj,'land her Indian Empire. Enlisting
as a clerk in the East India Company's service, he was sent to Madras
at the time when the tension between the English and French in the
Kariiiltik was at its height. He sprang into sudden fame by his daring
capture and glorious defence of Arcot. Olive's work in India falls into
three periods : the Conquest of the Karuiitik, beginning with the Siege of
Arcot; the Subjugation of Bengal, beginning with the Battle of Plassey;
and the Reorganisation of the civil and military administration of India,
which followed his return from England in 1765, as Governor of Bengal.
The latter part of his career earned him bitter enemies, and, largely as
a result of their machinations, he was, on his final return to England in
1767, charged in Parliament with peculation and fraud. The House
of Commons refused to pronounce him guilty, but the strain brought on
a state of melancholia, in which he died by his own hand.

Cook, Captain James (17;8-1779), was born in Yorkshire. He entered the
Navy, and served under Wolfe at the taking of Quebec in 1759. He was
made lieutenant in due course, and began his famous voyages in 17G8,
visiting Australia, and returning to England in 1771. His second voyage
was to New Zealand. In a third voyage he discovered the Sandwich
Islands, 1776; and explored the western coasts of North America. At
Owhyhee he was murdered by the natives before he could reach his boat.
Starting life with a poor education, he finished by being elected a Fellow
of the Royal Society.

Cromwell, OliYer (Lord Protector) (1593-1658), ranks among the greatest of
Englishmen, as a general, a statesman, a diplomatist and a ruler. He not
only took a prominent part in the defeat of the Roy.alist party, but
succeeded in overawing the Parliament and establishing a military
oligarchy. His foreign policy aided greatly in the foundation of the
British Empire abroad. He was the first to take advantage of Britain's
maritime power to attack an enemy in her colonies, and the policy thus
inaugurated did more than add Jamaica to the British Crown ; it was the
beginning of the development of the British Empire. Indirectly, too, his
policy, as embodied ia the Navigation Act, for the extension of British
commerce, tended in the same direction since it transferred much of the
great Dutch carrying trade to England, and thus sent her ships into every
sea.

Drake, Sir Francis (15I5-1S9S), was the chief of those Elizabethan seamen
who laid the foundation of English maritime greatness. His early life
was spent under the tutelage of that other famous seaman— his kinsman,
Sir John Hawkins, with whom he made various voyages to the Spanish
Americas. In 1570, he, as a privateer, captured Nombre de Dios, and
crossing the Isthmus of Panama, gained his first glimpse of the Pacific,
and vowed that he would never rest until he had, God willing, " sailed an
En-lish ship in those seas." In 1577, he sailed through the Straits of
Magellan— plundered the Spanish forts on the Pacific coasts, and captured

BIOGRAPHICAL. 227

galleon after galleon, and then sailing westward, completed the circum-
navigation of the globe — an exploit for which Klizabeth knighted him and
later ni;nle him Vice-Admiral of England. In the latter capacity, he
rendered signal service against the Armada. The Spaniards held hia
name in the greatest dread, puniiingly dubbing him Kl Dracontd (the
dragon). He died at sea, in I'jDu, and was buried off Porto Bello.
Frere, Sir Henry Bartle (1813-84), entered the service of the East India
Company, 1H:13. He filled several posts in India, and succeeded Sir Charles
Napier as Chief Commissioner of Sindh. He did valuable service in the
Mutiny by his influence over the natives. From 1862 to lf07 he was
Governor of Bombay, and further distinguished himself as an administrator.
He returned to England, and in 1872, he went to Zanzibar, and succee:led
in mitigating the slave trade in those parts. In 1S77, he was made
Governor of Cape Colony and High Commissioner for South Africa.
Under his r<'<7i'nic took place the KafHr and Zulu v.ars. His policy towards
the Zulus, however, did not add to his reputation. One object for which
he had been sent to Africa— the federation of the South African Colonies-
failed, and Sir Bartle was recalled in lt-80.
Froblsher, Martin (d. 1594), was the first Englishman to attempt the discovery
" of a Xortli-West pas.^age to China (Cathay). He organised three voyages
in all, but with little practical result. He believed that he had found
valuable deposits of gold in Northern Labrador, and hoped to found a
settlement there— a hope which, like that of discovering the North-West
passage, was doomed to disappointment. He was knighted for the signal
services he rendered in the defeat of the Armada. In 1591, he led a naval
expedition to Brittany in aid of Henry IV. of France, and was there
wounded. He died on board his ship, in Plymouth Sound.
Hastings, Warren (1732-1818), was perhaps the most famous of the many
great Governors-General of India. His early career was spent in the
service of " John Company," where he speedily rose to distinction, be-
coming, in 17.57, resident at Murshidabad. He retired to England in 1764,
on a pension, but through losses was compelled to apply to the Company
for a post— a request readily granted. He returned to India in 1769 as
Resident at Madras, and on the passing of the Regulating Act of 1773,
became the first Governor-General of India. His career was a brilliant
one, his rule successful, and he may be held to have established the
dominion of the Company on a firm and enduring basis. Certain of the
measures to which he was compelled to resort, through inadequate support,
were highly reprehensible, and on his return to England he was impeached
before the Lords. A trial, extending over seven years, ended in the
refusal of the House to convict him, but cost him his whole fortune. The
Company, mindful of his gieat services, came to his assistance again and
again. In his old age a peerage was offered hiin. He refused to accept
it unless it was coupled with a public reparation, which was, however,
denied. While the charges brought against him were, in the main,
verified, it must be remembered that the course he adopted saved the
English power in India, that his accusers were largely actuated by spite,
and that his personal integrity was never in question.
Havelock, Sir Henry (1793-18S7), was one of the most illustrious of the great
soldiers, to whoso bravery and devotion the Briti^-h Empire in India is
due. Proceeding to India in 182;), he won golden opinions by his courage

228 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

and skill during the troublous period of settlement which preceded the
Mutiny. His power as a linguist, too, was remarkable, and he proved
himself in addition a military historian of no mean merit with his " History
of the Ava Campaigns " and " Narrative of the Afgh m Campaign," through-
out both of which he served, as he did also through the Sikh war of 1845.
His name is, however, chiefly associated with the relief and subsequent
defence of Lucknow during the Mutiny. With some 2,000 men he marched
day after day under the burning Indian sun, defeated the rebels in eight
pitched battles, captured 209 pieces of cannon, re-took Cawnpore, and
finally threw himself into Lucknow, reKeved the little garrison and he'.d
the place until Sir Colin Campbell was able to finally defeat the mutinous
Sepoys. He died of dysentery a few days after his work was completed.

Hawkins, Sir John (1520-1395), was one of the foremost of the adventurers
and merchant mariners of Elizabethan times. _He made many voyages
to Africa and to the West Indies, was appointed Treasurer of the Navy
and served as Rear-Admiral, with brilliant success, a -ainst the Armada.
To him belongs the infamy of being the first to engage in the " slave
trade" between Africa and America, by purchasing negroes in Guinea
and selling them in Hispaniola. His last expedition was undertaken to
rescue his son Richard, a captive among the Spaniards in the West Indie .
Its failure left him broken-hearted, and he died off Porto Rico in 1595.

Kruger, Stephanus J Paul (.1825-1304), was born at Rastenburg, and went
with the great Trek to the Transvaal in 1835. He began life as a farmer,
went in for politics, 1872, under President Burgers, and visited England in
1877 and 1878, to protest against annexation. He became President of the
Transvaal 1882, but abandoned his country during the war of 1899-1902,
and died in Switzerland.

Livingstone, David (1813-1873) began life in a factory in Glasgow, where he
managed to study medicine and theology at the same time. In 1840, he
went as a missionary to Africa, and laboured amongst the Bechuanas.
In 1849, he began his exploring expeditions, and succeeded in verifying
the existence of Lake Ngami. During the next six years he explored a
great deal of South Africa, and returning to England, he published a
narrative of his missionary travels. Setting out again in 1858, he explored
a great part of the Zambesi country, and visited Lake Nyassa. In 1865, he
undertook another expedition to explore Lake Tanganyika. Here he was
lost sight of for two years, but was found by Stanley at Ujiji, November,
1871. He was in a deplorable condition, having been robbed and deserted
by his attendants. In his letters home, Livingstone spoke of the source of
the Nile as being about 600 miles south of Victoria Nyanzi. In 1873, this
illustrious explorer and evangelist died of dysentery at Ilala, in Central
Africa. His remains were taken to England and buried in Westminster
Abljey.

Macdonald, Sir John Alexander (1813-1891), son of Hugh Macdouald, of
Kingston, Canada. He became a lawyer, and practised at the bar of Upper
Canada in 1835. In 1844, he became a Member of the Canadian Parliament,
representing Kingston from that year until 1878. In 1854, he became
Attorney General for Upper Canada, and in 1862, he became Prime
Minister. He was a >trong advocate of the union of British North America,
and when the Dominion became an accomplished fact. Sir John was made
the first Dominion Premier. In 1871, he took part in the negotiations

UIOGRAPIIICAL. 229

with the United States on the subject of the Alabiinia claims. He had
much to do with the construction of the Canadian Pacific Kailway, and
Canada owes a large amount of her success to his great administrative
talents.

Mackay, Alexander M. (1849-1890).— The story of Mackay is one of the most
remarkable of ChriKtian roniiuices. A young Scotsman of very good
uducation ainl remarkable talents, he gave up the prospect of a brilliant
career as a mechanical engineer, and offered himself for missionary work.
In 1875 appeared Stanley's letter in The Dailii Telegraph (we Stanley)
describing Uganda and its king, and calling upon Christian England to
send missionaries to that attractive and promising country. It was in
response to this nppeal that Mackay went out, in company with several
others, under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society, in 1876.
Various calamities robbed Mackay of his colleagues, and finally he was
left alone in Uganda. There, besides preaching the Gosx^el and civilising
large numbers of natives, he taught the people to carpenter, print, build,
and do all sorts of mechanical work ; by which he won, first, their
conlidence, and then their admiration, and, finally, their affection. The
king, Mtesa, was, however, with many good qualities, a treacherous
character; the Mohammedan slave dealers were active ; persecutions were
set on foot ; many of Mackay's converts were murdered, and his own life
was frequently in danger. Stanley, on his Emin Relief Expedition, visited
Uganda in 1880, and paid a high tribute to Mackay's heroism, and pressed
the young Scotsman to return to England with him. Mackay, however,
preferred to remain at his post, and a few months later he fell a victim to
zeal, self-sacrifice and duty.

Hoffat, Robert (179S-18S3), was born at Inverkeithing, and laboured as a
missionary, first at Erromanga, Namaqualand, and Bechuanaland,
translating the whole Bible into Bechuana. His daughter married
Livingstone, with whom, in his travels, she encountered great dangers
and suffered many hardships. MotTat did great things in opening up and
Christianisini; large portions of South Africa.

Nelson, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805), one of the greatest, if not the greatest,
of English seamen, did much, by his triumphs over the French and
Spanish fleets, to break the schemes of France and frustrate her hopes
of regaining that position in the East from which the geni:is of Clive and
Warren Hastings had ousted her. He early distinguished himself in the
Mediterranean under Jervis, and was made Rear-Admiral for his signal
services in the battle of Cape St. Vincent. His greatest victories were
those of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar. The first of these frus-
trated Napoleon's plans a;,'ainst India, the second prevented a maritime
alliance of the Northern Powers against England, and the last destroyed
the French and Spanish fleets, broke their power on the sea and rid
England of the fear of the threatened French invasion. Trafalgar,
however, cost England her hero, who died in the moment of victory.

Park, Mungo (1771-1808i, hailed from near Selkirk in Scotland. His first
calling was that of a ship's surgeon, which brought him to the East Indies.
Then he was employed by the African Society to explore th" Niger ; but
having reached that river, and explored it for a co^^iderable distance, he
was obliged to retrace his steps, owing to dangers and privations (1796).
Later on, he took charge of another expedition to the same region, but, no
news having been heard of him for a long time, a rescue party was sent

230 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

after him, only to find that Park and his party had been murdered by the
natives at Boussa.

Raleigh, Sir Walter (1552-1618), achieved fame alike as soldier, courtier,
historian, poet and adventurer. He served with high distinction in Ireland,
and against the Armada, but it is as adventurer and settler that he is
chiefly famous. He shared his half-brother's — Sir Humphry Gilbert —
search for the North-West passage, and succeeded him in his endeavour
to colonise the coasts of North America, and finally made various attempts
to found a settlement in the Virginiaa, attempts which were at last crowned
by success. In 1595, he sailed to Guiana in search of El Dorado (the
"Golden City"). At the accession of James I., he fell into disfavour,
was impi-isoned for participation in the Main jilot, and only released to
undertake the search of gold, deposits of which he stated he knew of in
Guiana. The quest was unsuccessful, the party came into conflict with
the Spaniards, and Raleigh, on his return, was executed, to appease the
wrath of the Spanish Ambassador.

Rhodes, Rt. Hon, Cecil John (1853-1902i, was the son of a Hertfordshire
vicar, and was born in 1853. Being threatened with consumption while
young, he was, on the advice of a physician, sent to South Africa.
Returning to England in a couple of years, he visited his physician again.
The doctor had forgotten all about his case; on turning up his books, he
said, ''Why, you ought to have been dead two years ago ! " Mr. Rhodes
matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, but lung trouble again drove him
to South Africa, and settling with his brother at Kimberley, he went in
for diamond speculations, invested in mines, and succeeded in amassing
a large fortune. Having taken his degree at Oxford, and further entered
as a Law student in the Inner Temple, he again returned to South Africa,
and began to mature vast schemes for the expansion of the British
possessions in that country. Entering the Cape Parliament as member
for Barkly West, he was sent soon afterwards to arrange the delimitation
of Griqualand West, when he obtained the cession of a large section of
Bechuanaland ; and as the government at the Cape refused to take this
territory over, Mr. Rhodes induced the home government to establish a
protectorate over the same (1884). A sort of duel now began fa tween
Mr. Rhodes and President Kruger, who had similar expansion schemes in
view for his Transvaal Republic ; and Mr. Rhodes, lieing appointed Deputy
Commissioner for Bechuanaland, succeeded in frustrating Mr. Kruger's
ambitions in that part of South Africa. The amalgamation of the various
diamond mine comxaanies into the De Beers Consolidated Mines has
already been mentioned as the work of Mr. Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes's real
ambition was to see the whole of Africa south of the Zambesi brought
under British rule, but as he could not get either the Cape administration
or the home government to follow him in his plans, he determined to form
a company and obtain a charter which could deal with whatever territory
it might be able to secure. Having accomplished this, he was instrumental
in concluding with the Matabele King, Lobengula, the Moffat Treaty,
which practically secured to the British Government the "first refusal"
or pre-emption over Matabeleland territories. Thus arose the Chartered
Company, which soon began to administer nearly a million square
miles, and included Rhodesia (i.e., Mashonaland and Matabeleland),
Bechuanaland, and British Central Africa.

lUOUKAl'HICAL. 231

In 1890, Mr. Rhodes became Prime Minister in the Cape government,
but in 1893 he had to deal with Matabole disturbances, and some flKhting
occurred before peace was restored by tha death of Ijobengula, in 1894. In
189-4, Mr. Rhodes was made a Privy Councillor, and liibourod hard for a
general federation of British South Africa. His connection with the
Jameson Raid caused him to resign the Premiership, as well as his
directorate of the Chartered Company. Loss of British prestige, in eon-
sequenee of the Raid, caused another Matabele rising, and numbers of
the native police joined the rebels, and carried their arms with them.
Mr. Rhodes organised a military force at Salisbury, which defeated the
Matabeles at Gwelo. It was after this (in 189G) that Mr. Rhodes paid
his famous visit to the native chiefs in the MiUoppo Hil's.

Mr. Rhodes was severely censured by the Select Committee appointed
to inquire into the Jameson Raid for his conduct in regard to the same,
which (said the Report) "involved him in grave breaches of duty to those
to whom he owed allegiance." In the discussions over this Report,
however, Mr. Chamberlain said, "Although Mr. Rhodes had committed
as great a fault as a statesman could commit, nothing had been proven, and
there existed nothing against his personal character as a man of honour."

Mr. Rhodes sat again in the Cape Parliament, and, heading the
Progressive party, advocated, more or less, a policy of Free Trade, c m-
pulsory education, railway extension, and the restricted sale of alcohol
to the natives, not forgetting the federal policy — which has since been
consummated. In 189S, Mr. Rhodes was unanimously re-elected a
director of the Chartered Company, and from thenceforth he devoted his
energies to the development of Rhodesia. One of his great schemes was
the construction of a railway from the Cape to Cairo, iu the interests of
which he had two interviews with the Gorman Emperor. In 1899, Oxford
University conferred the honorary degree of D.C.L. upon Mr. Rhodes,
on which occasion ho received an enthusiastic ovation. During the South
African War, Mr. Rhodes was shut up in Ivimberley, and sustained the
tension of the siege. After the raising of the siege by General French,
Mr. Rhodes repaired to Cape Town. Ho survived to see the practical
destruction of the South African Republic, and its annexation by Great
Britain, but his health was broken, and he died on March 2Gth, 190:J. He
was buried, according to his own directions, in the Matabele stronghold,
in the heart of the Matoppo Hills. His will was a remarkable one. He
was never married, and he left most of his enormous fortune for the
foundation of scholarships at Oxford, for students from the British colonies,
and from the United States of America ; his object being expressed to be
the unification, not only of the British Empire, but of English-speaking
people throughout the world. A codicil to the will extended a number of
scholarshii^s to German students. Mr. Rliodes was, without doubt, one of
the greatest of Empire-builders, a man who " thought imperially," and
whose name will for ever be associated with the expansion of the British
Kmpire, the devotion to wliich was his passion and his pride.
Bpeke, John Hanning (1827-18611, came from Somersetshire. He served under
Sir Colin Campbell in India, and endeavoured to explore the Himalavas
and Tibet. Afterwards he visited Africa, in company with Captain Burton,
and, in 1858, discovered the Victoria Nyanza. In 1800, ho went (accom-
panied by Grant) to ascertain the source of the Nile ; and, practically
succeeding in his object, his name became famous. He met his death by
accident at Bath, being shot by his own gun.

232 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

Stanley, Sir Henry Morton (1841-19041.— John Rowlands spent ten years of
his childhooa in the Poor-liousc of St. Asaph. At the age of fi:teen he
sailed, as a cabin boy, to New Orleans. He was there adopted by a
merchant named Stanley, whose names he took instead of his own. After
taking part in the American Civil War, he was sent, in 1867, to Abyssinia
with the British army as correspondent of The New Yoi k Heraltl. In 1870, he
was sent by the proprietor of the same paper to find Livingstone, which he
succeeded in doing, in November, 1871, and, in 1872, he returned .to England
with Livingstone's diary. He was everywhere received with acclamations,
and honours and rewards were showered upon him. In lS7i, he was again
sent to Africa, and explored the Victoria Nyanza. This lake, which it
took him eight days to circumnavigate, and whose area he found to be
40,000 square miles, he ascertained to be the chief source of the Nile. He
further explored the Albert Nyanza and the country of Uganda, and it w-as
a letter from Stanley to The Daily Telegraph that led to the sending, by
the Church Missionary Society, of the mission to that country, which
eventually led to the proclamation of the British protectorate of Uganda,
He further explored the Congo, and returned via St. Paul de Loanda.
Stanley conducted other exploring expeditions through Africa in 1879,
1882, and 1S87, when he relieved Emin Pasha, the Governor of Equatorial
Africa, whom, with his followers, he brought safely to Egypt. On this
journey Stanley discovered Mount Ruwenzori and Lake Albert Edward,
the latter being proved to be the source of the White Nile. Stanley
published many accounts of his travels, e.g., " How I Found Livingstone,"
"Through the Dark Continent," "In Darkest Africa," etc.

Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of (1759-1832i, was the great rival of
Napoleon, whose schemes on land he foiled as completely as Nelson had
done at sea. The earlier part of his career as a military commander was
spent in India, where his brother — the Marquis Wellesley — was Governor-
General. He played a prominent part in all the operations which led to
the reduction of Mysore, and led the war against Sindhia, capturing
Ahmednagar, and then totally defeating 50,000 MarAthi troops in the
famous battle of Assaye, in which he had, in his command, but 3,500 foot
and 2,000 horse. A second great victory at Argaum scattered the Mar^thas
and led to the cession of a large territory to the East India Company. His
chief fame, however, rests on his marvellous campai^'ns in the Peninsula,
and the crowning victory of Waterloo, which shattered Napoleon's hopes
and sent him a prisoner to St. Helena. During his later life, he was a
great figure in the jjolitical world, where, however, he was far less suc-
cessful than in the field.

Wolfe, James (1727-1759), was one of the youngest of those loaders, whom
Pitt's instinctive knowledge of men led him to select for the control of
the British operations in the colonies. He first won fame in the colonies
by his success in the expedition against Cape Breton, where the honours
of the siege of Louisbourg, fell to his share. In 1751), he led the famous
expedition against Quebec, then the keystone of French xjower in Canada,
where his daring in scaling the reputed inaccessible Heights of Abraham,
together with his skill as a commander, led to a complete victory. Wolfe
died on the field, but five days later Quebec surrendered, and with it
Canada passed into the'possession of Britain.

APPENDIX II.

Epochs of Expansion.

1588. The Defeat of the Armada— This broke the Spanish supremacy upon
tlie seas, and led England to endeavour to succeed her both in com-
niorcc and colonisation. The movement in this direction was, however,
checked by the Stuarts, who had little sympathy with schemes for the
development of Greater Britain, and were, moreover, allied, more or
less closely, with France -England's great rival in this attempt.

1607-1620. The Settlement of America.— With the settlement of Virginia by
8ir Waller lialei-h and of the New England States by the Pilgrim
Fathers and those who followed them, Greater Britain— that is, the
British Empire beyond seas— came into existence.

1653. The Conquest of Jamaica.— This marked Cromwell's return to the
policy of Elizabethan times. He saw the advantage of attacking
Britain's enemies in their colonies, and possessed for the first time
in the country's history a fleet capable of carrying his policy into
execution. The navy, organised by Sir Hurry Vane and Blalie for the
defence of the country ajainst attacks by sea, became a potent factor
in the extension of the Empire. • The capture of Jamaica was the first
fruits of the policy.

1651, The Navigation Act.— This measure was the outcome of Cromwell's
desire to secure for England that position in the world's commerce
which her Insular character, her powerful navy, and the repute of her
seamen demanded. It led to a long sea-duel with Holland, which
ended In transferring the Dutch carrying trade to England and made
English merchants the most formidable rivals of the Dutch in
the East.

1688. The Revolution.— The Revolution of 1C3S marks the beginning of a
century of close alliance with Holland against France. Louis XIV.
determined to secure for France the commercial supremacy which
England had all but wrested from the Dutch. In consequence of the
attitude of the home governments the relation between the traders of
the two nations in India and America became biferly hostile.

1713. The Treaty of Utrecht.— This practically gave England the commercial
and maritime supremacy of the world. The Armada saw her enter the
competition, the Treaty of Utrecht saw her win it. Up to the defeat
of the Armada Spain had been the first state in the world ; from that
time her power declined. At the time of the Commonwealth Holland
was the wealthiest country of the world. From 1G60 to 170J, Prance
had held the first place. The Treaty of Ut' c.-ht g.ave it to England.
England gained Acadia (Nova Scotia), one of Prance's three great
settlements (Acadia, Canada and Louisiana) in North America, to-
gether with Newfoundland and Hudson Bay Territory ; Spain by the
Assiento Contract was compelled to break the monopoly by which
she had closed Central and South America to the trade of the world.

1763. The Treaty of Paris.— The Treaty of Paris marked the culmination of
English power in the eighteenth century. The whole of North America
was secured to her by the cession of Canada, while Clive's victories

234 BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THE SEAS.

in India had practically crushed French hopes of Empire there, and
had established the firm foundations of British rule. The Empire
thus swayed by Britain, if smaller in extent than that of Spain, was
vastly superior in importance.

1766. The Fall of the. Mogul Empire.— This threw India into a state of
anarchy. The Imperial sway hitherto held by the Moguls having lost
its power, the minor princes took up arms one against the other. The
result was a condition of affairs highly favourable to the rise of new
powers. The conquest of India was due to the confusion and anarchy
caused by the fall of the Moguls, the discovery of Dupleix — afterwards
utilised by Clive — that the natives could be disciplined in the European
fashion and were willing to place themselves under European officers.
Thus the material for the Company's army lay ready to hand ; the cost
was met by the riches captured. In this way India was made to
supply the troops and defray the expense of its own conquest.

1775. The American War of Independence.— The thirteen states which
seceded to form the United States of America, were by far the greatest
and most important part of Greater Britain. Moreover, their secession
demonstrated the impossibility of forming an Empire on the lines
hitherto accepted. It was argued that as soon as a colony had arrived
at a certain pitch of develojiment it would infallibly shake itself free
from the mother country. The inference was justified while the
colonies remained under the old system. The growth of the new
Greater Britain has shown it to be false as regards the new colonial
system. By the rupture with her American colonies England lost her
first Colonial Empire.

1815. The Battle of Waterloo.— The result of Waterloo was to free England
from all danger of attack by Napoleon, whose schemes included the
overthrow of British power in the East, the establishment in India of
the French Empire dreamed of by Dupleix, and the wresting from
England of the commercial supremacy she had held since the Peace of
Utrecht.

1857. The Indian Mutiny.— This led to the final downfall of the power of the
East India Company, which, in fact, may be really said to have ceased
to exist when its monopoly of trade was withdrawn at the granting of
its last charter in 1833. In the year following the Mutiny, the Company
was abolished by Act of Parliament, after an existence of some two
hundred and fifty years, and British India was formally annexed to ths
British Crown.

1884. Discovery of African Diamond and Gold Fields.- The explorations
of Baker, Burton, Speke, Park, Livingstone, Moffatt and Stanley led
Europeans and Americans to take a strong negative interest in Africa,
The discovery of the diamond fields of Griqualand West, etc., and,
above all, of the Transvaal gold fields in 1884, caused Americans and
Europeans to take a strong active interest in the " Dark Continent" ;
and very soon England, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Belgium
were hurrying to "peg out" Africa; so that in about ten years after
1881 there was very little of the continent left unajipropriated by
European nations. In that decade Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Zulu-
land, Rhodesia, British Central Africa, Nigeria, Zanzibar, Uganda,
Somaliland and British East Africa were added to the British Empire.

APPENDIX III.

Glossary of Colonial Terms.

Acadlai — The name applied Co the first Freauli settlements in North America.

It comprised, at tirst, Nova Scotia, and then a^ipears to have included

olher districts occupied by the French.
Afrikander. — A native of Capo Colony or of the neighbouring districts, Ijorn

of wliito parents. A descejidaut of European settlers in South Africa.
Boer. — A descendant of the Dutch settlers in South Africa. (D., Boii—a,

farmer, a peasant.)
Buccaneers. — The name given to those piratical adventurers who combined

to attack the Spanish possessions in America, daring the latter half o£ the

seventeenth century.
Bund or Bond.— Union of Dutch settlers in South Africa.
Bushranger. — .\n Australian criminal, generally an escaped convict, who,

taking to the woods, there led a predatory life.
Cathay. — The name by which the Chinese Empire was known to mediteval

]■> a rope.
Colony.— .4 district inhabited by a number of people who have emigrated

thither from their native land, and who remain subject to the home

government. The earliest colonies were i^robably founded by the

Phcenicians on the islands or along the southern coasts of the

Mediterranean, of which Carthage was the chief.
Coolie.— The name given by Europeans in India to native labourers engaged

in menial occupations, and in Africa, the West Indies, South .\nierica

and other places to an East Indian or Chinese labourer employedi

under contract, in plantation or other work.
Creole. — A native of the West Indies or Spanish America descended from

European ancestors — a person born in these countries but of a race not

indigenous to them.
Crown Colony.— A colony in which the Cro.vn has entire control of the

legislation, while the administration is carried on by officers under the

control of the home government.
Dependency. — A territory subject to the control of Great Britain, although

not forming an integral part of the Empire.
Drift — lioer word for for J.
EI Dorado. — A country rich beyond all others, which the Spaniards believed

to exist in the New World. Orellana averred that he had found it on his

voyage down the Amazon, 1540-1541.
Entrepot. — A place used as a mart, to which goods are sent to be distributed

over a country, or where goods are collected for export. E.g., Hong Kong

is the great entrepfit for China.
Eurasian. — A European and Asiatic half-breed.
Factory. — An establishment of merchants (or factors) in a foreign place,

formed for mutual protection and advantage and occupying special posts

or d(.'p6ts (also termed factories) often strongly fortified. The factories of

the Hudson's Bay Company were known as forts.

236 BRITISH DOMIXIOXS BEYOXD THE SEAS.

Galleon.— A large armecl ship of burden. The name usually applied to the

huLj'e unwieldy vessels used by the Spaniards for the transport of treasure

or troops.
Gurkhas.— The dominant race in the Hindu kingdom of Nepal.
Hinterland. — The inland country behind a coastal settlement or possession.
Hottentots. — A South African race, differing from the others in that its

members are of a yellowish-brown complexion, of smaller stature, of

ungainly build and of inferior mental powers. The name is imitatively

descriptive of their speech, which contains a number of clucks, and so

resembles stammering.
KafiSrs. — A South African race originally inhabiting Cajie Colony, Natal, or

the neighbouring districts. The name Kaffir (or Kafir) means unbeliever,

and was applied to these races by the Mohammedans of Eastern Africa

because of their refusal to accept Mohammedanism {ef. Turkish Giaour.)
Maories or Maoris. — The aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand. The word

Maori means native or indigenous.
Mardthas. — A race of Western and Central India, which having conquered

many states, formed themselves into a confederation to resist the power

of the Moguls.
North-West Passage.— A route to China, India and the East, which early

navigitois believed to exist round the northern coasts of America. The

efforts to discover the North-West passage, though unsuccessful, gave a

vast impulse to maritime enterprise.
Pahekas.— The name applied by the Maories to the white traders who visited

the islands.
Penal Settlement.— A settlement beyond seas, to which convicted prisoners

are transported for punishment. Port Jackson was such a settlement.
Plantation.— A settlement in a new country, where farming operations were

carried on by white settlers, the labour being furnished by the natives of

the country or by convicts and prisoners exported from the home country.
Privateer. — An armed vessel, fitted out by private persons but acting on a

Government commission ■ letter of marque) to prey upon the commerce

of a nation with which it is at war.
Prospector. — One who explores or ssarches for valuable minerals as a

preliminary to commencing mining operations.
Sepoy. — A native soldier serving in the Indian Army under the British

Government. (The word sipahi means a horseman — a soldier.)
Sikhs. — A great religious sect of the Punjab, which organised itself into a

pov?erful military force — the Khaha. The word Sikh means a -disciple.

The sect was founded by Nanak Shah about 1500 a.d. Their religion

pa: takes both of Hinduism and of Islam.
Spheres of Influence. — Those parts (chiefly of Africa) which are the scenes

of trading or civilising activity on the part of the great European

powers.
Squatter. — One who (a) settles on new land without a title ; (b) (Australia)

obtains from the government the right of pasturage on moderate or

nominal terms. The name is now extended to include all stock-owners.
Trek. — Originally to travel by ox-waggon. The name is now usua'.ly applied

to a migration such as that in which the Boers left Cape Colony to found

the Transvaal (The Great Trek, 1835-1S3C).
Uitlander. — Foreigner. Foreign settler in the Transvaal.
Veid. — In Africa, a plain covered with very short grass.

INDEX.

Abolition of Slavery, Effact of

AcatUii

Acadians, Expulsion of

Afghan imbroglio

Africa, liiitisU Rule in

Agitation, the Convict, in Cai.)c

Coloiiv

Alauil)a;-;b, The

Alaska Boundary

AUaUaliad, Treaty of

Auiboyna, Massacre of

America, British in ... ■■■

American Colonics, Brilam and

thu •••

American Independence, De-
claration of •••

American Independence, War of

Ancient Colonies :••

Anglo - French Struggle in
Karnatik : —

First Phase

Second Phase

Third Phase

Fourth Phase

Antigua

Arcot, Clive at

,, Siet?e of

AshantiWar

Australasia

Austraha, Gre.tt Strike m

,, South

„ Discovery of Copper in

„ Western

Australian Colonies Act ...

„ Federation ... 2o
Award, Keate, The

Barbadoes

Basutolaud •■•

Bentinck— Governor-General ol

India

Bermudas

Boer War

Borneo, British

Botanv Bay

Bristol Merchants, The ...

Buccaneers, The

„ in Jama:c.i

Bund, The

Bunker Hill, BaUlo of

Burma

•VflE

148
121
123
9i

185

Burmese War, First

So ;ond

PAGE.
.. «0

... b'2

189
86

139
71
53

108

111

118

118

13

60
61
66
73
148
03
04
201
154
175
101
165
1157
163
177
205

lU
199

81

119

207

219

155

33

44

40

193

110

221

Cabot, John

,, Sebastian

Calcutta, Black Hole of

Canada, Comiuest of

„ Feileralisation

,, anil llio States

,, Rebellion in

„ The Federal Plan

Canadians, Enijlish and French

Canning, Lord

Cape Colony

,, ,, Capture of

Cawnpore, Massacre of

Cetywayo ... ... . ... ••■

Clive, Administration in Bengal

„ at Arcot

„ at Plas-ey

„ Trial of

Colonies, Agricultural and Plan-
tation

,, Ancient

,, Anglo-Saxon, Charac-
ter of

,, British, Future of ...
,, British, Value of

,, Plantation

,, West African

Colonisation, Growth of

,, Modurn

,, Reasons for

„ System of.

Exclusive
,, Wakelield's System

in Australia

Columbia, British

" Company, John"

Compmy, The East India ...
Company, The East India and

the Government

Company, The East tn lia, Mono
' poly of Trade withdrawn ...

I Cook, Captain, in Australia

I Cur/.on, Lord

I Cyprus

Dalhousie, Lord

I Davis, .John ...

' Declarati )n of Independence,
American

34

36
07
123
131
125
12.S

i;u

127
82

192

186
85

197
71
63
69
72

15
13

18
24
22
15
191
20
14
15

20

164
128, 133
... 55
... 52

75

The

81
155

96
219

82
43

118

238

BRITISH DOMINIONS BEYOND THii SEAS.

Delhi, Siege of 88

Diamond Mines of Kimberley ... 192

Dominion of Canatia 131

Dupleix in the Karnatik 61

East India Company 51

Elgin, Lord 89. 95, 128

Elizabethan .'ieamen, The ... 38

Emisfration 21

Empire, The Mogul ... ... 57

Empire's Growth, Phases of ... 28
England and France ... 31, 56

., „ Holland 30

„ „ Spain 29

English and Dutch at Sea ... 56
English and Dutch in East

Indies 52

English and French in America 119

Exploration, Australian 160

Explorers, Australian 159

Jameson Kaid, The
Johannesburg

P.^.G'^.

.. 212
.. 209

Federation, Australian

23, 177

Federalisation, South African ... 196

,, in Canada ... 131

Fiji 224

French Designs in India 61

French, The, in America ... 119

„ ,, in the Karnatik ... 60

Frere, Sir Bartle 193

Gambia 191

Georgia, Foundation of 110

Gilbert, Sir Humphry 37

Gold, Discovery of, in Australia 161

Gold Coast Settlements 191

Go;d Fever 161

Gough, General, In the Sikh

Wars 81

Grey, Sir George 181

Growth of Colonisation 20

Growth of the Empire, Phases

of the 28

Guiana, British 150

Guinea, New 223

HaidarAll 74

Hastings, Warren 75

,, ,, Extortions of 76

„ ,, Trial of ... 77

Hawkins, Sir John 49

Heligoland 224

Honduras 151

Hudson's Bay Company 129

India, British Rule in SI

,, Governors-General of ... 107

,, Transference to Crown... 88

Indian Unrest 100

Isandlwana 197

Jackson, Port, Settlement at 1S8

Jamaica 145,152

,, Capture of 145

„ Slave Trade in 146

Kaffir Wars 186

Kaft'raria, British 192

Karnatik, French in the 60

Keate Award, The 205

Kruger, President of Transvaal 208

Lagos 191,202

Lansdowne, Lord 95

Laurier, Sir Wilfred 133

Lawrence, Sir John 90

Lexington 116

Loan, The Pepper 54

Lucknow, The Siege cf 86

Relief ot 85

Lytton, Lord 93

Macdonald, Sir John 137

Main, The Spanish 144

Maiwand 94

Majuba Hill 207

Manitoba 132

Maories, Degeneration of ... 170

Maori King 180

„ Wars 172, 180

Maraetahi, Battle of 181

Marithils, The 80

Manitha Wars 79

Maroons, The 146

Maryland, Foundation of ... 110

Massacre of Amboyna 53

„ Cawnpore 85

„ Patna 70

Mayflower, Voyage of The ... 110

Mayo, Lord 91

Meerut, Outbreak at 83

Merchants, Bristol, The 33

Minto, Lord 100

Modern Civilisation 14

Morgan, Sir Henrv 46

Mutiny, The Indian 82

Mysore Wars, The ... 74, 78

Nana Sahib

Natal

,, Annexation of

New Guinea

New Spain

New Zealand

,, ,, Governors of

Northbrook, Lord

North- West Passage

Nova Scotia

Navigators, The Early

Orange Free State

Oudah, Annexation of

,, The Begams of ,

Pahekas, The

Patna, Massacre of

Pitt and Canada, Scheme of Con
quest

... 84
190, 197
... 189
... 223
... 16
169, 179
... 183
... 93
... 42
... 120
... 33

... 188

... 82

... 77

... 171
70

239

Pliintations, Tlio

Plasscy, Battle of

Plyiiioinh Adventuiers, The
I'rotuction in Ciinaila
Protectorates, East Africa
„ West Africa

PAOR.

47
69
109
130
199
203

Quebec, Capture of 124

SiL"-;c iif, by Kirke ... 120

Quebec Act (1774) 126

Queenslaiitl 176

Raid, The Jameson 212

Uaiul CoUl PicUls 209

Raleigh, Sir Walter, in America lOi)

Reasons for Colonisation ... 15

Reciprocity Treaty, The (1854)... 131

Roil, r.ouis 132

Rhodes, Cecil 194

Rhodesia 197

Ripon, Lord 97

Roberts, Lord, in South Africa 215

San Juan Boundary Dispute... 135

Sarawak 219

'■Scadoi;s, The" iW

Sc.ldon, Richard J 183

Siege of Arcot, The 64

Sierra Leone 191

Sikh War, First 81

„ ,, Second 82

Slave Trade, The 49

Slavery, Abolition of, in Indies 148

Soraaliland 200

South African Federalisation 196, 199

War 214

South .\ustralia 164

Spain, New 16

Squatters, The 157

Stamp Act, The 114

System, The Exclusive 20

I'AdK.

Tasmania 168, 184

Tea, The Detestable 115

Te Kooti 181

Territory, Hudson Bay, The ... 129

Te Whiti 182

Tibet, Expedition to 97

Trade, The Slave, in America ... 49
Transvaal and Orange River

Colony 203

,, Annexation of ... 205
„ Responsible Govern-
ment 218

,, Retrocession of ... 207

Treaty, Reciprocity (1854) ... 134

Trek, The Great 1«8

Trinidad 150

Ultlanders, The 210

Ulundi, Battle of 198

Union of the American Colonies 118

Unrest, Indian 100

Value of Colonies 22

Venezuelan Boundaries Dispute 151

VereeniKinK, Pe:icc of 217

Victoria, Discovery of Gold in ... 161

Victoria, Empress of India ... 93

Virginia, Settlement of 109

'• Wahabees," The

... 89

Waitangi, Treaty of

... 173

Weihaiwei

... 224

West Indies, British in ...

... 142

West African Colonies ...

... 191

Willoughby, Sir John ...

... 43

Wool, Australian, Trade in

... 158

Zealand, New

169, 179

,, ,, Governors of

... ISl

Zulu War

... 197

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